COLOMBIAN POLICE THWART PLAN TO USE SUB TO SMUGGLE COCAINE

FACATATIVA, Colombia (Associated Press) -- In a scheme worthy of Jules
Verne that awed even veteran naval officers, Colombian drug traffickers
were building a sophisticated submarine to smuggle cocaine, reportedly with
help from U.S. and Russian criminals.

Police stumbled upon the half-built submarine Wednesday night in a
warehouse outside the capital, Bogota -- 7,500 feet up in the Andes
mountains and 210 miles from any port.

Even by smugglers' innovation standards, this was off the charts -- Verne
could have called it "20,000 Kilos Under the Sea."

The 100-foot submarine could have crossed an ocean, surfaced off Miami or
other coastal cities and surreptitiously unloaded its drug cargo.

"In the 30 some-odd years I have been in law enforcement, I have never seen
anything like this," said Leo Arreguin, chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Colombia.

"We're talking about being able to load up to 200 tons of cocaine in this
submarine." However, other officials put the cargo capacity much lower, but
they also said it could carry at least several tons.

At the warehouse Thursday, officials examined the submarine and said they
were amazed at the lengths that Colombian traffickers go to export drugs.

Colombian cartels supply more than 80 percent of the world's cocaine and a
rising share of its heroin, officials said.

Police were led to the find by suspicious area residents, who had seen
Americans hanging around the warehouse, located in a cow pasture off a
highway near the suburb of Facatativa.

When police arrived, there was no one around. Surveillance cameras had been
placed on the roof. No arrests have been made.

"This is very high tech," said Colombian Navy Capt. Ismael Idrobo, gazing
up at the reddish sub, which stood in three sections on lengths of railroad
track. "Look at the rudders and the pressurized double hull. This could
easily travel 100 meters under the surface of the ocean."

Navy Capt. Fidel Azula, a former submarine captain and member of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said even the Colombian navy lacked the knowledge to build
such a vessel. "This is unmistakably of superb naval construction," he said.

Arreguin said seized documents, including blueprints, contained Russian-
and U.S.-sounding names.

There were indications that Russian engineers were involved, including "a
very professional engineer who has constructed submarines," Arreguin said.

The Russian Mafia has been involved in cocaine trafficking to Europe,
Arreguin said.

Scattered about the warehouse were welding tools, propane tanks, hard hats,
tool boxes and knee pads, and a Grainger Tools catalog from the United States.

Smugglers have outfitted passenger planes and ships to transport drugs and
even built small fiberglass "submersibles" to ferry drugs to a mother ship.

However, the submarine in the latest police discovery is over 11 feet in
diameter.

Years ago, Colombian traffickers reportedly tried to buy a military
submarine from the Kremlin's fleet as the Soviet Union collapsed.

Officials said the traffickers probably planned to transport the sub in
three sections on tractor-trailers to the coast.