News (Media Awareness Project) - Colombia: High In The Andes, A Drug Sub Surfaces |
| Title: | Colombia: High In The Andes, A Drug Sub Surfaces |
| Published On: | 2000-09-09 |
| Source: | Age, The (Australia) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-03 09:27:12 |
HIGH IN THE ANDES, A DRUG SUB SURFACES
They have smuggled cocaine in fast boats, in radar-ducking planes, even in sweets. But on Thursday, Colombia's audacious drug traffickers astounded even the country's seasoned police.
High in the Andes, some 400 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean, they found a partly built submarine.
Police, aided by a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, found Russian-language manuals with the sub in a mountain workshop 30 kilometres west of Bogota, Colombia's capital.
The vessel could have carried 11tonnes of cargo, Colombian naval officials said.
Police believe the traffickers planned to move the 30-metre vessel to the coast piece by piece in containers.
"Never in my life, in 32 years working with the police, have I seen anything like this," said Leo Arreguin, DEA director for Colombia.
The submarine is an ambitious technological leap for the traffickers to the sort of sophisticated tool that only a sovereign naval force usually commands.
Even by Colombian standards the submarine project was in a league of its own. Police had to overcome a televised security surveillance system when they raided the workshop late on Wednesday. Inside they found a completed watertight hatchway along with the submarine's casing, stabilisers and a propeller.
"The material all appears to be imported," an official said. "The technology is advanced and the workmanship is high-quality."
A naval spokesman said traffickers had used smaller, relatively unsophisticated "mini-subs" to transport drugs. But the vessel under construction was three times the size of the largest mini-sub, which was found five years ago.
The sub had hydraulic tubing, a protected propeller, a double hull and diving fins that would enable it to descend to 100 metres.
Its appearance strengthens the position of anti-narcotics warriors, such as US drug tsar General Barry McCaffrey, who supported a recently approved $US1.3 billion ($A2.3 billion) aid package with the argument that Colombia desperately needs help to stand up to well-connected drug rings with virtually unlimited budgets.
"It was shocking to me to see how much technology illicit money can buy," said Captain Ismael Idrobo, projects director for the Colombian Naval Academy.
US customs authorities have found drugs sewn into wigs, inserted under animals' skin, hidden in breast implants and taped inside musical instruments and in tropical-flavored lollipops with cocaine centres.
They have smuggled cocaine in fast boats, in radar-ducking planes, even in sweets. But on Thursday, Colombia's audacious drug traffickers astounded even the country's seasoned police.
High in the Andes, some 400 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean, they found a partly built submarine.
Police, aided by a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, found Russian-language manuals with the sub in a mountain workshop 30 kilometres west of Bogota, Colombia's capital.
The vessel could have carried 11tonnes of cargo, Colombian naval officials said.
Police believe the traffickers planned to move the 30-metre vessel to the coast piece by piece in containers.
"Never in my life, in 32 years working with the police, have I seen anything like this," said Leo Arreguin, DEA director for Colombia.
The submarine is an ambitious technological leap for the traffickers to the sort of sophisticated tool that only a sovereign naval force usually commands.
Even by Colombian standards the submarine project was in a league of its own. Police had to overcome a televised security surveillance system when they raided the workshop late on Wednesday. Inside they found a completed watertight hatchway along with the submarine's casing, stabilisers and a propeller.
"The material all appears to be imported," an official said. "The technology is advanced and the workmanship is high-quality."
A naval spokesman said traffickers had used smaller, relatively unsophisticated "mini-subs" to transport drugs. But the vessel under construction was three times the size of the largest mini-sub, which was found five years ago.
The sub had hydraulic tubing, a protected propeller, a double hull and diving fins that would enable it to descend to 100 metres.
Its appearance strengthens the position of anti-narcotics warriors, such as US drug tsar General Barry McCaffrey, who supported a recently approved $US1.3 billion ($A2.3 billion) aid package with the argument that Colombia desperately needs help to stand up to well-connected drug rings with virtually unlimited budgets.
"It was shocking to me to see how much technology illicit money can buy," said Captain Ismael Idrobo, projects director for the Colombian Naval Academy.
US customs authorities have found drugs sewn into wigs, inserted under animals' skin, hidden in breast implants and taped inside musical instruments and in tropical-flavored lollipops with cocaine centres.
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