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Submarine with 2.7 tonnes of cocaine seized

Sibylla Brodzinsky and Rory Carroll

and Rory Carroll

Bogota: The three snorkels (tubes that allow a person to draw air while submerged in water) broke the surface of the ocean, tiny specks far off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and at a steady clip skimmed towards the United States. Two metres beneath the waves throbbed a vessel like no other, a 15-metre-long wood and fibreglass submarine carrying a fortune in cocaine and a crew with a mission improbable.

Taking turns to breathe through the PVC pipes jutting over the waves, the four smugglers were risking a vast expanse of sea, U.S. and Central American coastguard patrols, and the possibility their home-made U-boat would disintegrate.

If they made it, the prize was enormous: the cargo of 2.7 tonnes of cocaine had a street value of up to £47 million. But last weekend the odyssey ended in international waters about 150 km off Costa Rica's Cabo Blanco national park when the authorities spotted the snorkels and swooped.

Painted white, the vessel had an engine capable of up to 12 kmph and was shaped like a conventional submarine but may not have inspired the confidence of a navy sailor or an oceanographer. In essence, a big tube held together with a do-it-yourself kit, it had a baler to keep out water. Submarines appear to be becoming a favoured method of drug smuggling. In August, a 10.5-metre empty submarine was found in an inlet off Spain's north-west Atlantic coast, prompting suspicion that a large shipment had been successfully imported. Russian documents found at the site suggested Russian mafia involvement and a European destination for the submarine, which probably would have been dismantled and taken by lorry to Colombia's Pacific or Caribbean coast.

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© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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