Colombians Uncover Drug Smuggling Sub |
Posted by FoM on September 07, 2000 at 21:35:16 PT By Andrew Selsky, Associated Press Source: Washington Post Police raiding a warehouse in this rural town stumbled upon a most unusual drug-trafficking tool: A 100-foot-long, half-built submarine that they say would have been able to smuggle 200 tons of cocaine below the ocean's surface. Colombian authorities displayed their find today, a day after they discovered it along with documents in Russian in this town a half-hour's drive outside Bogota. Police and journalists crawled through the snub-nosed submarine's three unattached reddish metal sections and gazed in wonder at its size and sophisticated design. "It was between 30 and 40 percent completed and had its engine room ready," the Colombian National Police director, Gen. Ernesto Gilibert, told reporters. "The technology is advanced and the workmanship of high quality." Colombian traffickers have used smaller, simpler "mini-subs" on at least two occasions, Gilibert said. But even seasoned anti-drug officials said they were stunned by the dimensions of the vessel discovered here. "In 32 years I've never seen anything like this," Leo Arreguin, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration director in Colombia, told reporters. "This is huge. We're talking about being able to load up to 200 tons of cocaine in this submarine." The submarine's discovery marks a new chapter in innovation for Colombia's ingenious drug cartels, which have previously used refitted commercial airliners and oceangoing freighters to ship cocaine to the United States and other parts of the world. The simple brick warehouse, complete with closed-circuit television monitors, was empty at the time of the raid. It was strewn with workbenches, power tools and gas canisters used for welding. No-smoking signs hung on the walls. Tools left haphazardly on shelves in the submarine's midsection suggested that workers had made a hasty getaway. Arreguin said documents discovered at the site indicate not only probable Russian ties to the submarine but that two Americans may have also been involved. He did not elaborate on the possible U.S. connection. No arrests have been made. Facatativa is located roughly 7,500 feet above sea level in Colombia's eastern Andean region. "We think they were going to send it to the coast by truck in these three sections," said National Police Sgt. Samuel Alvarez. "The computerized navigation system was probably being built elsewhere." Colombia exports 90 percent of the world's cocaine and is a growing heroin supplier. Traffickers have become increasingly expert at getting the drugs past intense air, sea and land interdiction efforts. _____Special Report_____ • The Evolution of the U.S. Role in Colombia's Civil War Facatativa, Colombia, Sept. 7 Colombia Drug War News - CannabisNews & MapInc. Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
Comment #10 posted by Scott on September 08, 2000 at 18:34:16 PT:
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Scott
Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on September 08, 2000 at 18:24:53 PT:
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Captain Odom told her hubby just before her last flight over Rebel held territory that she had been targeted by radar. Missile radar.
The Special Forces/Delta team that was sent in to recover the bodies seemed to be in an awful hurry to destroy any trace left of the aircraft. Most SAR teams contain forensics experts (believe me when I say as a former Civil Air Patrol troop with lots of grim experience that they do) in order to determine what made the thing crash to begin with. But *all* evidence, not just the hi-tech spy equipment but the *airframe* of the plane was destroyed. If time was of the essence then they would have taken the easily extracted gear (designed that way) after disarming the booby traps, and got the Hell out of there. They instead dawdled long enough to pitch some thermate grenades and only after they had made sure the plane was fully incinerated did they leave.
Why? To hide the possibility that it may have been brought down by considerably more than lucky small-arms fire?
It's obvious the narcos have the money to buy anything their wretched little hearts desire. Anything from AK47s from Jordan to mini-subs from Russia. They can certainly afford something in between...like some shoulder-launched Stingers from Afghanistan, perhaps?
Against which a DeHavilland DH-7 wouldn't stand a chance.
We haved been lied to about the entire DrugWar, from its very inception through today. And now, we HAVE ALREADY involved ourselves in someone else's 'dirty little war'. A war in which the American people have already suffered casualties. Casualties like Jennifer Odom and her crew. How many more can we expect?
If we have to build a memorial for this war, their names will be the first on it. The first 'oficial' names, that is.
That's a memorial that, like most of them, we don't have to build. If we wake up in time.
If.
Comment #8 posted by Tim Stone on September 08, 2000 at 18:19:27 PT |
The intuitive - and official - feeling is that "drugs" are an evil force which can only be combatted by a greater force, namely, prohibition. Like two bull goats going at it in rutting season. If prohibition backs down, even a little, in the toe-to-toe battle, then Evil Drugs will win and society as we know it will end. Therefore we must always oppose the Evil Drugs with stronger force.
What's counterintuitive, what goes against "common sense," is the apparent fact that the Evil Drugs get almost all of their strength from the attempts to oppose Evil Drugs. The evils of prohibition, inotherwords. The more we use prohibition force as the sole possible problem solving tool, the more money/incentive Evil Drugs then has to continue to produce their product and use force to market it, like with submarines.
And the counterintuitive way to handle the Evil Drugs is the judo- or aikido-esque way of going with the flow, rather than directly opposing it, in order to gain control, as with alcohol.
And the reason why there is not more support for national drug policy reform is that such change goes so against many people's superficial hunch. Give in to get control? No way, they say. Gotta oppose with greater force, otherwise we'll be overwhelmed, they say.
And I can't think of any way to get the counterintuitive nature of drug policy reform stuck into people's nuts other than just time and information. Eventually, enough people will figure out that the counterintuitive nature of drug policy reform isn't so weird, dingie and counterintuitive after all. But that's going to take a while.
Comment #7 posted by MikeEEEEE on September 08, 2000 at 16:38:49 PT |
Comment #6 posted by Dan Hillman on September 08, 2000 at 15:01:16 PT |
On the other hand, I'm tempted to wonder how often this technique is used successfully. The article even says smaller subs have been used before. There's an urban legend brewing here, if nothing else.
Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on September 08, 2000 at 13:22:19 PT:
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Frank Zappa, God rest his soul, couldn't have come up with anything more bizarre. But I could just see him in Heaven laughing his a** off and composing something.
If anything shows how truly insane the lengths of the DrugWar have driven both antis and narcos, this has got to be it. But it also demonstrates something less funny; the fact that JUST ONE GROUP OF NARCOS has the wherewithal to do this. Just one, and it has the loose cash do do this withount sinking (no pun intended) their entire enterprise. What do you want to bet that they heard the news, they just shrugged their shoulders and went on counting their billions?
I am reminded of an old movie, 'The Battle of the Bulge'. The top German Panzer leader has unwrapped a still-fresh chocolate cake taken from an American POW. He explains to his comrades that the Allies have the wherewithal to spend fuel, something absolutely priceless to the losing Nazis, in sending chocolate cakes across the Atlantic Ocean, in wartime. That one thing demonstrated the hopelessness of the German position in WW2.
This bit with the sub is as clear a 'message' as possible that if the narcos have this much money to waste on such a harebrained scheme, Uncle hasn't an icecicle's chance in Hell of stopping this DrugWar.
Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 08, 2000 at 11:10:47 PT |
I could visualize in my mind a submarine surfacing off shore somewhere and rolling down a window and saying come and get it! I saw a lunch wagon cinero. I must be getting punchy from all this bazarre news! LOL!
Peace, FoM!
Comment #3 posted by CongressmanSuet on September 08, 2000 at 10:45:40 PT:
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Comment #2 posted by Mr. Skullhead on September 08, 2000 at 06:46:25 PT:
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Comment #1 posted by dddd on September 08, 2000 at 02:48:00 PT |
????????????????????????.....dddd
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