| July 24, 2007: For the fourth time in the last decade, police have captured a submarine used by drug gangs to move drugs. Last year, the navy seized a 57 foot long fiberglass submarine 45 kilometers off the Pacific coast. The sub was built for, and used by, drug smugglers, to get the drugs to high speed boats off the coast, which would move the cocaine north, towards Central America, and eventually the United States. Both subs could was carrying four tons of cocaine. In March, 2005, police caught a drug gang building a small submarine to smuggle cocaine out of the country. This one was found, under construction at a small Pacific coast port. This sub could carry about ten tons of drugs, past police and navy patrols, to larger ships offshore. Four years earlier, police had interrupted another submarine construction effort. All these submarines are, technically, "submersibles." That is, they operate just beneath the surface, in order to avoid navy patrols. |