Submarine emisubmersibles account for about one-third of cocaine imports from South America, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. If spotted by authorities, the ships are designed to sink easily — leaving behind a few floating crew members but little evidence with which to prosecute them.
Now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to give authorities a new tool to go after the drug lords who have been exploiting the law to evade prosecution. The legislation comes after months of advocacy by the U.S. Coast Guard and the military, which have been frustrated in their attempts to stop the submerged drug runners.
“Every time we turn around, the smugglers are extraordinarily creative, extraordinarily adaptive,” said Rear Adm. Joseph L. Nimmich, commander of the Joint Interagency Task Force South.According to the U.S. military, the four-man, disposable semisubmersibles are constructed in rebel-held territory deep in the Colombian jungle, then transported to the ocean via rivers. The semisubs can be built of wood, fiberglass or steel. They are up to 80 feet long and have a range of 2,000 miles. On June 16, U.S. forces encountered one of the newfangled drug boats northwest of the Colombia-Ecuador border. But before the Americans could get to it, the four Colombians aboard scuttled it, along with the estimated five to seven tons of cocaine they were carrying, according to Coast Guard documents.
So what started as a major drug bust ended up as a rescue mission. And with no evidence, the government could not prosecute the four drenched sailors.
The threat of prosecution is still a key law enforcement tool that authorities use to get leads on the shadowy world of drug kingpins. “Actionable intelligence is one of our best assets,” said Lt. Cmdr. C.T. O’Neil, the U.S. Coast Guard’s chief spokesman.The readily sinkable ships frustrate interdiction efforts, and the drug smugglers know it.“When you scuttle a vessel and all of the evidence of the smuggling winds up at the bottom of the sea, it makes prosecution difficult,” O’Neil said. “When the people involved in the smuggling venture know they are not going to face significant jail time, they are not so inclined to provide us with information.”
The quasi-submarines are only the latest scheme drug dealers use to move their illicit stashes of white powder. Previous transport included air drops, fishing trawlers and cargo vessels with hidden compartments, as well as so-called go-fast ships that can outrun law enforcement vessels.
The semisubmersibles present a whole new challenge. “What’s most striking is the logistical capacity of these criminals to take all this material into the heart of the jungle, including heavy equipment like propulsion gear and generators,” said Colombian Navy Capt. Gustavo Angel.From the drug dealers’ viewpoint, the use of semisubs has been successful. Seizures of cocaine by the Coast Guard are down by nearly two-thirds so far this fiscal year, compared with 2007.
