Spanish police say they have seized a homemade narcotics submarine that can carry up to 2 tons (2.2 tons) of cargo
MADRID – Spanish police announced on Friday that they had seized a homemade narco submarine that could carry up to 2 tons (2.2 tons) of cargo.
Police found the 9-meter-long (30-foot-long) vessel last month while it was being built in Málaga, on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, during a wider international drug operation involving five other countries and the criminal agency of the European Union was involved. Europol.
The 3-meter (10-foot-wide) semi-submersible vessel is made of fiberglass and plywood panels attached to a structural frame, has three partition ports on one side and is painted light blue. It has two engines with 200 horsepower that are powered from the inside.
Spanish police chief Rafael Perez said the vessel had never sailed.
“We think it’s going into the open sea to meet a mothership to adopt the drugs,” probably cocaine, before returning to Spain, Perez told reporters.
“It’s like an iceberg,” he said of the vessel’s structure. “In practice, it goes almost everything underwater, except for the top, which is the only part that can be seen from another ship or a helicopter.”
Similar drug smuggling vessels have been discovered in the Atlantic in the past, particularly in Central and South America. They sit low in the water to escape detection and can rarely fully immerse.
The broader police operation against the alleged international smuggling ring has resulted in hundreds of kilos of cocaine, hashish and marijuana in various places in Spain, with 52 people arrested.
Spanish police said in a statement that police in Colombia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Portugal were also involved in the operation.