Cracking down on the drug subs

Scotsman:

IT SEEMS that an end to the long game of cat and mouse being played out on the high seas of the Caribbean may be in sight.

Colombian drug cartels have been smuggling cocaine in submarines, up to ten tons at a go, with impunity – until now. Colombia's congress has just passed a law punishing the building of semi-submersible vessels with up to 12 years in prison, and sentences of up to 14 years for people who use such vessels to transport drugs.

The legislation is a bid to crack down on wily crews who, once they are detected by the Colombian navy, simply don life jackets and scuttle the subs, sending the incriminating evidence to the bottom of the sea.

"This law will change everything for us," said Admiral Guillermo Barrera, the head of Colombia's navy. "Instead of an anti-narcotics operation turning into a rescue mission when the submarines are sunk, we will now be able to fish the crew out of the water and charge them."

The United States last year introduced similar legislation that has allowed it to prosecute 12 traffickers caught out at sea. "It's very likely a game-changer," said Jay Bergman, regional director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, based in Colombia. "You don't get a get-out-of-jail free card anymore."

Drug subs have become the cartels' preferred method of transportation: over the past six years, 37 have been intercepted by the navy. Six of those were during this month.

Between them, they had the capacity to move 40 tons of cocaine which, once it reaches US shores is worth $1 billion (£612 million).

...

This is exactly what I suggested a few weeks ago when stories about the difficulty in tracking the subs surfaced. It is much easier to stop these things in Colombia than once they are in the water. They should focus on the builders. It would be difficult to hide the facilities and even more difficult to hide the orders for materials to build them. Tracing the purchase of resin, fiberglass and woven rosin in teh quantities needed to build these craft should not be that hard.