First narco-sub captured in Europe — sinks with 3 tons of cocaine

NEWS: Here are all the crazy details on the first narco-submarine to be captured in European waters. A narco-sub — a semi-submersible vessel stuffed with three tons of high-grade Colombian cocaine was discovered this week off the west coast of Spain, just above where Spain borders Portugal.
It started with an international tip that the vessel was heading across the Atlantic Ocean from South America. Working with the officials from Britain, the United States, Portugal and Brazil, Spanish federal authorities began scanning the seas around the coastline in an area notorious for smuggling because of its secluded coves and curving coastline.
It’s an area that became a major clandestine entry point to Europe of Colombian cocaine after a crackdown on ports in Southern Italy.
Spanish authorities think bad weather prevented the drugs from being offloaded onto a ship off the coast and forced the sub into calmer waters closer to shore.
Police were dotted about the area, waiting for a rendezvous and prepared to swoop. Whether through poor communication or poor weather, no one came to meet the sub and the crew seemed to think the best thing to do was to scuttle the sub in the night, sinking it along with the evidence of their cargo and abandoning it.
On Sunday night — Nov. 24, 2019 — an air patrol with night-vision equipment spotted the sinking sub and three fleeing crew members and alerted police to its location.
Two men were caught wearing wetsuits. Both are from Ecuador. A third, reportedly a Spanish man, got away. At least so far.
First police responders struggled to gain control of the sinking sub in the night, marking its location and trying to rope it up and hold it fast, without success.
Over the next few days, police divers arrived and examined the narco sub on the seabed, just a short distance from the beach. Its an eerie scene. Then heavier boats came with equipment to refloat the sub. The cargo was intact. Police found 152 bales of cocaine weighing about 3,000 kilos.
The 72-foot long sub was towed to port and examined. An official estimated it would have cost around €2.5 million to construct.
Police said the sub was custom-built of carbon fibre and was capable of making repeated trans-Atlantic journeys. It’s not known if it had made the run before and if so, how many times? It had room for 3 to 5 tons of cocaine.
The federal police said it is the first narco-sub to be detected on the European continent, although rumors and legends suggested they had been making runs for some time.
Narco-subs are seen, and captured, now and again in South and North American waters as cocaine is shuttled north from Colombia to the United States. They are usually built in small, clandestine shipyards hidden in remote areas of South American jungle to avoid being discovered.
Once in the water, these extremely low-profile semi-submersibles are difficult to see because they blend in so well with the waves and are not visible by scanning the horizon looking for boats. Thy are also difficult to pick out on sonar because of their proximity to the surface.
Authorities usually rely on luck or prior intelligence about their movements for interdictions. Or, as it help in this case, the bad luck of the traffickers.
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