A semi-submersible, four meter long “torpedo” which could traffic 200 kg of cocaine to central America has been seized by the navy on Colombia’s Pacific coast.
Colonel Carlos Mario Diaz, Commander of the Second Marine Brigade, told the Associated Press that the seizure is the first of its kind in Colombia.
The vessel can be powered by electric batteries or diesel, and Diaz described it as “a semi-submersible torpedo — four meters long by two wide, which has an internal capacity to accommodate approximately 200 kg of cocaine hydro-chloride”.
The torpedo was constructed out of PVC and fiberglass, and could navigate for ten hours. It was discovered during an operation against three camps of a renegade group of the Rastrojos criminal group, but no arrests have yet been made. The organization historically controlled drug-trafficking routes up the Pacific coast, but in 2013 suffered devastating set-backs at the hands of law-enforcement agencies and through attacks by the rival Urabenos gang.
The camps had the capacity to house 30 people. A longboat with an Ecuadorian registration plate was found with the torpedo.
Sources
- Hallan semisumergible de “los Rastrojos” que operaba a control remoto (El Universal)
- Ahora camuflan coca en torpedos (La Semana)