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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Cocaine-laden submarine sinks off Colombia |
| 2008-01-04 |
| Colombian cocaine smugglers scuttled a US-bound homemade submarine off the South American country's Pacific coast, Colombia's navy says. It is the second time in a month that Colombian forces, backed by the US Coast Guard, have stopped an underwater craft which was then sunk by its crew members to destroy their incriminating cargo. In both cases, the smugglers quickly opened the hatches to sink the vessels before they could be boarded by authorities. Both submarines had the capacity to ship 10 to 12 tonnes of cocaine to the world's biggest market. Colombia's navy has stopped 18 cocaine submarines since 2005. The multi-billion-dollar Colombian narcotics trade funds a guerrilla war in which thousands are killed and displaced every year. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 Actually, powder cocaine (cocaine HCL) is quite soluble in water. The free base version (crack) is not. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-01-04 23:24 |
| #12 I just had a second think, suppose the idea is to "Sink" them, and then a timer set for(Say) 24 hours blows the ballast tanks and it pops right up again? I understand Cocaine is NOT soluble in water, so why not? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-01-04 21:09 |
| #11 Stand by to blow ballast! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-01-04 19:00 |
| #10 Colombian Broken Arrow |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2008-01-04 10:12 |
| #9 Hey, they were shipping poison to the USA. Sink em all. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-01-04 09:59 |
| #8 To answer the odd, uninformed comments/questions: Cocaine Submarine http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/915059.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/23/wsub123.xml |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2008-01-04 08:32 |
| #7 I understand they are engine-less, towed by boats, simple solution, sink the towboat, leave, let them drown, or starve, can't eat coke, (But they maybe can die happy) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-01-04 07:44 |
| #6 I understand they are engine-less, towed by boats, simple solution, sink the towboat, leave, let them drown, or starve, can't eat coke, (But they maybe can die happy) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-01-04 07:44 |
| #5 Two words: depth charges. |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-01-04 06:16 |
| #4 Do these scum really really need to be rescued, or are they left to swim back to shore? |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-01-04 02:49 |
| #3 Anuther one??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-04 00:45 |
| #2 Are these some sort of WWII submarines that travel on the surface all the time? Why do they keep getting nabbed? |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-01-04 00:14 |
| #1 so... what happens to shark and whale activities when they get coked up by one of these subs? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-01-04 00:05 |