Falling price of cocaine forces drug traffickers to reuse narco-submarines, say Spanish police

"While semi-submersible vehicles have been used regularly in Colombia and other parts of South and Central America since the 1980s, they were not detected in European waters until 2006, when an abandoned sub was found in an estuary in the north-west Spanish region of Galicia. Since then, 10 such subs have been spotted or seized by Spanish police. Until recently, the boats, which cost about 600,000 (524,000) to build, were used for one-way trips."

"These semi-submersibles used to head to the area around the Canaries on one-way voyages and they'd then be sunk, said Alberto Morales, the head of the central narcotics brigade of the Spanish Policia Nacional. Back then, the cost of the merchandise in comparison with the cost of the vessel still made doing that very worthwhile they'd be carrying three or four tonnes minimum, so operating that way was very profitable."

Semi-submersible narco-submarines have been used in South and Central America since the 1980s and were first detected in European waters in 2006 when an abandoned vessel was found in Galicia. Ten such submarines have been spotted or seized by Spanish police since. The custom-built boats cost about 600,000 (524,000) to construct and were previously used for one-way voyages and scuttled after delivery. Massive cocaine production has halved wholesale prices to about 15,000 (13,000) per kilogram, undermining the economics of scuttling. Traffickers now unload cargo, establish refuelling platforms at sea, and return the vessels to make multiple trips.

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