Spanish police say they have seized a homemade narco submarine capable of carrying up to 2 tons (2.2 tons) of cargo
MADRID – The Spanish police announced on Friday that they have seized a homemade narco submarine capable of carrying up to 2 tons (2.2 tons) of cargo.
Police came across the 9-meter (30-foot) craft last month while it was being built in Málaga, on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol, during a wider international drug operation involving five other countries and the European Union crime organization . Europol.
The 3 meter wide (10 feet wide) semi-submersible vessel is made of fiberglass and plywood panels attached to a structural frame, has three portholes on one side, and is painted light blue. It has two 200 hp engines that are operated from the inside.
Rafael Perez, chief of the Spanish police, said the ship had never sailed.
“We think it would go out into the high seas to meet a mothership to take the drugs on board,” probably cocaine, before returning to Spain, Perez told reporters.
“It’s like an iceberg,” he said of the ship’s construction. “In practice, almost everything goes under water, except the top, which is the only part that would be seen from another ship or a helicopter.”
Similar drug trafficking vessels have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in the past, especially in Central and South America. They sit low in the water to escape detection and are rarely fully submerged.
The broader police operation against the alleged international smuggling ring yielded hundreds of kilos of cocaine, hashish and marijuana in various places in Spain, with 52 people arrested.
The Spanish police said in a statement that police in Colombia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Portugal were also involved in the operation.