More on submarines in the Andes

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[The only question I have is whether Washington will use this as an excuse
to invade Russia.]

The New York Times, September 8, 2000, Friday, Late Edition - Final

210 Miles From Pacific Ocean, Drug Smugglers Try to Build Sub

DATELINE: FACATATIVA, Colombia, Sept. 7

Uncovering a scheme worthy of Jules Verne, authorities here say that
Colombian drug traffickers have been building a sophisticated submarine to
smuggle cocaine, reportedly with help from American and Russian criminals.

The police stumbled upon the half-built submarine on Wednesday night in a
warehouse outside Bogota, 7,500 feet up in the Andes and 210 miles from any
port. The 100-foot vessel could have crossed an ocean, surfaced off Miami
or other coastal cities and surreptitiously unloaded its drug cargo, the
police said.

"In the 30-odd years I have been in law enforcement, I have never seen
anything like this," Leo Arreguin, the director of the United States Drug
Enforcement Administration in Colombia, said today. "We're talking about
being able to load up to 200 tons of cocaine in this submarine."

Top officials flocked to the warehouse today to marvel at the lengths that
Colombian drug traffickers, who supply more than 80 percent of the world's
cocaine and a rising share of its heroin, will go to export their illicit
products.

The police were led to the find by suspicious residents nearby, who had
seen Americans hanging around the warehouse, which is in a cow pasture off
a highway near Facatativa, a Bogota suburb.

When the authorities arrived, no one was around. No arrests have been made.

"This is very high-tech," said Capt. Ismael Idrobo of the Colombian Navy,
gazing up at the reddish submarine, 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."

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.

Mr. Arreguin said that seized documents, including blueprints, contained
Russian- and American-sounding names. There were indications that Russian
engineers were involved, including "a very professional engineer who has
constructed submarines before," he said.

The Russian mob has become increasingly involved in cocaine trafficking to
Europe, Mr. Arreguin said.

Scattered about the warehouse were welding tools, propane tanks, hard hats,
toolboxes and kneepads, and a Grainger Tools catalogue from the United
States. A no-smoking sign and calendars featuring bikini-clad models hung
on the walls.

Previously, smugglers have outfitted passenger planes and ships to
transport drugs, and even built some tiny fiberglass submersibles to ferry
drugs to mother ships. But they were mere contraptions compared with this
submarine, which measured more than 11 feet in diameter. Officials said the
traffickers could have transported the sub in three sections to the coast
aboard tractor-trailers.


Louis Proyect
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