The Colombian Navy on Wednesday announced its first seizure of an uncrewed narco-submarine equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast.
The vessel was not carrying drugs, but the navy and Western security sources based in the region said they believed it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel.
“It was being tested and was empty,” a naval spokeswoman confirmed.
Photo: Colombian Navy Press Office via AFP
Crewed semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine north from Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico.
However, in the past few years, they have been sailing much further afield, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The latest find, announced by Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo at a news conference, is the first reported discovery in South American waters of a drone narco-submarine.
The Colombia Navy said it was owned by the Gulf Clan, the country’s largest drug trafficking group and had the capacity to transport 1.5 tonnes of cocaine.
A video released by the navy showed a small gray vessel with a satellite antenna on the bow.
It is not the first time a Starlink antenna has been used at sea by suspected drug traffickers.
In November last year, Indian police seized a giant consignment of meth worth US$4.25 billion in a vessel steered remotely by Starlink near the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Cocaine production, seizures and use all hit record highs in 2023, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said last month.
In Colombia, production has reached record levels, fueled by surging global demand.
Rozo said the use of autonomous subs reflected the traffickers “migration toward more sophisticated unmanned systems,” which are hard to detect at sea, “difficult to track by radar and even allow criminal networks to operate with partial autonomy.”
Juana Cabezas, a researcher at Colombia’s Institute for Development and Peace Studies, said that powerful Mexican drug cartels, who operate in Colombia, “hired technology experts and engineers to develop an unmanned submarine” as far back as 2017.
Drone vessels make it harder for the authorities to pinpoint the drug lords behind the shipments, she said.
“Removing the crew eliminates the risk of captured operators cooperating with authorities,” said Henry Shuldiner, an investigator for the US-based InSight Crime think tank, who coauthored a report on the rise of narco-subs.
Shuldiner also highlighted the challenge of assembling crews to sail makeshift subs described as floating “coffins.”
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is