The vessel, which is nine meters long, three meters wide and three meters deep (30 x 10 x 10 feet), was found in a warehouse in Malaga, southern Spain, on Friday, according to a press release from the Spanish national police. It was discovered during an operation against a sophisticated drug smuggling ring that resulted in 52 arrests.
Semi-submarines are difficult to locate, but expensive to build. It has long been used by drug dealers operating in Latin America, but it is thought to be much less common in Europe.
It consists of a plywood and fiberglass frame built around an existing keel, and according to police, there are two 200 outboard motors of 200 horsepower driven by a control panel inside the cabin.
Rafael Pérez, commissioner of Spain’s judicial police, said construction was underway while the vessel was seized and had never been tested in the water.
Peréz said at a press conference that he believed the vessel would be used to meet a mothership at sea.
According to the press release, the semi-immersion point was found during a long-term investigation in cooperation with security forces in Colombia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the USA and Portugal.
More than 300 Spanish police conducted 47 searches along the country’s Mediterranean coast.
Investigators have unearthed a number of drug-related properties, including a ‘sophisticated clandestine laboratory’ in the Barcelona region with the capacity to extract and process up to 750 kilograms of cocaine per month, as well as 12,000 liters of precursor chemicals. .
In February, police arrested one of the main suspects at Barcelona’s El Prat airport when he was about to board a flight to the Netherlands.
Thirty of those arrested are currently in awaiting trial.
During the investigation, Spanish police also seized a 15-meter fiberglass boat, 400 kilograms of cocaine, 700 kilograms of hashish and more than 100,000 euros ($ 119,280) in cash.
In January, Spanish police seized more than two tonnes of cocaine and arrested 12 people allegedly involved in a large-scale drug smuggling network with links to Paraguay and Brazil.
According to a statement from the Spanish national police, authorities have been investigating the network, whose members have been trying to cover their tracks by setting up legitimate businesses, for more than a year.