Cocaine shipment to U.S via submarine

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=275864

A drug-carrying submarine has been intercepted by U.S authorities off the coast of Central America.

The submarine was carrying cocaine worth an estimated US$352 million.

The semi-submersible vessel had been spotted by a surveillance plane, flying off the Mexico-Guatemala border, which guided a U.S Navy ship to the scene.
more...
where did they get the submarine???

[soothsayer]

1. Merrimac? Monitor?

[havocmom]

2. Old Soviet model?

:shrug:

[soothsayer]

3. Hunley?

[havocmom]

4. LOL

Milk, through my nose...
Ouch

[Poll_Blind]

5. LOL! Oh god I just had the craziest image of, say, The Monitor opening....

...up on of the cannon plates and kilos of cocaine spilling out. That image...tickled me!

:rofl:

PB

[Richard Steele]

6. What's a "semi-submersible vessel"? That doesn't sound like a real submarine to me. nm

Edit- I just went Googling; looks like there are alot of
these things being used for tourist attractions, as a variation
of the old glass-bottomed boat tour:

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. And here's another one and...It's FOR SALE!

:woohoo:

http://www.maritimesales.com/ORS10.htm

[Scurrilous]

7. They build them:

Submarine found in Colombian Andes (September 7, 2000)

<snip>

"An anonymous tip led police to a warehouse where they found a submarine under construction in this town, located roughly 2,250 meters (7,500 feet) above sea level.

Police officials say they think the sub was being built by drug smugglers. "It was between 30 and 40 percent completed and had its engine room ready," Colombian National Police director Gen. Ernesto Gilibert told reporters. "The technology is advanced and the workmanship of high quality."

Colombian authorities displayed the 30-meter-long (100-foot-long) sub on Thursday, a day after they discovered it along with documents in Russian in this town a half-hour's drive outside Bogota.

No drugs were found in or near the sub, and no arrests were made, but police said they were questioning two Americans in connection with the discovery.

The submarine was in three unattached sections. Officials say it had capacity for 200 tons of cocaine."

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/09/07/colombia.sub/

[Kagemusha]

8. It's been long known or at least speculated that subs were being used

They don't have to be serious to be pretty hard to detect. But it seems this one was a bit el cheapo and a plane got the better of it.

Cost of doing business.

As for where, er, editing my post, the reply prior to this one shows that the cartels actually build their own ones these days, amazingly enough. Guess they got tired trying to buy them on the black market? And their needs are for cargo only.

[Scurrilous]

11. Buying from the Russians an option also:

Russian Mob, Drug Cartels Joining Forces (September 29, 1997)

<snip>

"In the early 1990s, according to Russian experts, a consortium of Russian organized crime leaders sent Vyacheslav Ivankov, a well-known mob figure, to the United States to move Russian criminal enterprises here and expand their operations. Ivankov was arrested in New York on extortion charges in June 1995 and remains in prison, but he was responsible, according to federal authorities, for expanding the reach of the Russians to Miami.

In Miami, Ivankov allegedly frequented a nightclub and strip joint called Porky's near the international airport, which beckons prospective clients with pink neon lights urging them to "Get Lost in the Land of Love." Porky's was owned by another reputed Russian mobster, Ludwig Fainberg. Known as "Tarzan" because of his long hair and muscular build, Fainberg was arrested in February in a case law enforcement officials said shows how close the Russian organized crime groups and the Colombian cocaine cartels have become.

According to the indictment, brought after a three-year undercover investigation, Fainberg and others used Porky's as a meeting place to arrange the sale of at least two Soviet military helicopters to the Cali cartel. According to officials, they also were negotiating to sell the cartel a Tango-class diesel-powered patrol submarine to be used to move cocaine from Colombia to the coast of California. The submarine was based in Kronshtadt, a large Russian submarine base on the Gulf of Finland, off St. Petersburg.

During the negotiations, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the operation, the price of the submarine, which included a crew of 20 for a year, dropped from $9 million to $5 million. The deal fell through when the Colombians backed out, apparently feeling such an enterprise was too ambitious."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/russiagov/stories/mafia092997.htm

[Kagemusha]

12. Heh, that confirms it then. The cartels said, it's too expensive, we'll build our own.

And so they did.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Great. Now they have another excuse to use that fucked up Low Frequency Sonar that kills whales.

The drug war is a fucking joke, people. Enough, already. Legalize pot, treat hard drugs as a health and not law enforcement issue.

If people want a mind altering substance, they will find a way to get it. That was the lesson of alcohol prohibition.

[ellisonz]

13. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[jmowreader]

14. What's next...

Torpedoes. You know it's coming.

Build about a dozen nice fat torpedoes with electric motors, some sort of rudimentary homing capability and big cargo holds for blow, fill 'em up, load 'em into a small cargo plane like a DC-3 or a Pilatus PC-12, take off at night and drop the torpedoes 12 miles off shore.