I'd be so scared to make that 30 foot dive in the deep ocean in a homemade sub. I wonder how many have gone to 30 feet and just kept sinking.
Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#12I wonder if they make remote controlled ones.
Why spend more money on robotics when you have an almost unlimited supply of patsies. A 2 weeks trip originating in narrow Jungle swamps and transiting deep ocean water would require serious robotic control. But if they keep making so much money I wouldn't be surprised if they went all Mars rover on the subs. Hell when I first saw these things a few years back they were just fiberglass boats with no top, that Feb 1st…
Valid point. Although, maybe a remote controlled one could be made smaller or dive deeper and thus be less easy to detect.
It could be made more solid through and through, thus be less likely to be crushed at lower depths, thus become smaller. Most of the space is probably due to life support and the driver being able to move around in it, and not to store the goods.
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#13That's pretty crazy that they are able to construct such complex vessels, but yet they still resort to trafficking drugs.
For the people comissioning the subs, it is not a question of "resort." The margins in the drugs trade would make your eyes water. Cocaine and similar substances are practically worthless at source compared to their retail value in the US/EU.
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#14I was surprised to read in the caption of one photo that the Colombian Navy actually piloted one of the subs rather than transport it by lift or tow!
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#15The phenomenon of drug-smuggling submarines should be required study for anyone who preaches total prohibition of drugs. There is so much demand for this product that its suppliers were willing to build and travel in several homemade submersibles to smuggle it. And yet harsh jail-time and zero-tolerance are supposed to stop the trade?
Not only have the profit levels been driven up so that the suppliers are willing to build and use submarines, they are ok scuttling them after a single use. Submarines are a disposable tool to the drug trade. And they can survive interception of very high ratios of their shipments by simply sending more shipments. I agree, this prohibition strategy seems to be fundamentally flawed. Truly mind-boggling amounts of mone…
For no particular reason other than the sheer illogic of it all, the anti-drug "war" was an interest of mine for a while. I read a book, maybe 18 years ago, about a DEA agent that managed to get so deeply embedded with one of the key cartels that he got to the point he was buying directly from the manufacturer (cocaine in this case). At that level, the price was also substantially lower than street price, or even higher-level middle man prices. His comment was that the US could buy ALL the cocaine they could possibly produce for something like 1/4 what they were spending on "enforcement". Of course, there was no interest in that.
My personal opinion is that the whole "war on drugs" thing is nothing but a boondoggle perpetuated to give some people jobs and a distracting thing to fight against.
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#16The phenomenon of drug-smuggling submarines should be required study for anyone who preaches total prohibition of drugs. There is so much demand for this product that its suppliers were willing to build and travel in several homemade submersibles to smuggle it. And yet harsh jail-time and zero-tolerance are supposed to stop the trade?
It's a difficult problem. The alternatives to prohibition isn't any better in my opinion.
Edit: I'll add this, much of the root cause comes down to poverty as well.
Edit: OK down voter, it's an easy problem. It has nothing to do with the poor conditions in the countries where the drugs are produced.
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#17The phenomenon of drug-smuggling submarines should be required study for anyone who preaches total prohibition of drugs. There is so much demand for this product that its suppliers were willing to build and travel in several homemade submersibles to smuggle it. And yet harsh jail-time and zero-tolerance are supposed to stop the trade?
It's a difficult problem. The alternatives to prohibition isn't any better in my opinion. Edit: I'll add this, much of the root cause comes down to poverty as well. Edit: OK down voter, it's an easy problem. It has nothing to do with the poor conditions in the countries where the drugs are produced.
That's a very sweeping and unsupported generalization.
Legalizing drugs: -raises tax revenue
-raises the quality of drugs (eliminating one of the greatest dangers--people ingesting unknown and even more deadly substances)
-lowers costs, meaning addicts don't have to turn to a life of crime to support their habit
-allows society to have responsible, adult discussions about the personal risks of different drugs
-reduces prison crowding and eases the load on law enforcement, costing taxpayers less
-destroys less young lives over stupid mistakes
-lets the focus be on harm prevention rather than punishment
Maintaining drug prohibition:
-is safe and easy for politicians
-makes people feel better when they moralize at others
(I'd like to point out that I don't personally do any drugs, nor do I want to. That's my choice. It should be a choice.)
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a difficult problem. The alternatives to prohibition isn't any better in my opinion. Edit: I'll add this, much of the root cause comes down to poverty as well. Edit: OK down voter, it's an easy problem. It has nothing to do with the poor conditions in the countries where the drugs are produced.
That's a very sweeping and unsupported generalization. Legalizing drugs: -raises tax revenue -raises the quality of drugs (eliminating one of the greatest dangers--people ingesting unknown and even more deadly substances) -lowers costs, meaning addicts don't have to turn to a life of crime to support their habit -allows society to have responsible, adult discussions about the personal risks of different drugs -reduce…
Yes, however free supply will drive down prices. The current street price that people are perfectly willing to pay for 1 gram of cocaine tells a lot about the demand, and just how addictive the drug is.
There is no reason legal cocaine would cost more than say, coffee. Now, what would cocaine at that price level do to a population, families and to society?
I've seen the argument before, mostly applied to lighter drugs like marijuana though. In my view it's your argument that is a sweeping generalization. It's also unsupported, where have cocaine legalization been applied successfully?
>It should be a choice.
That's so naive. We are talking about an addictive substance, if it is a choice then why don't crack/cocaine addicts just quit.
Someone is down voting my comment, yet this person doesn't have counter argument, it just happens to not be in alignment with their view.
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#19The phenomenon of drug-smuggling submarines should be required study for anyone who preaches total prohibition of drugs. There is so much demand for this product that its suppliers were willing to build and travel in several homemade submersibles to smuggle it. And yet harsh jail-time and zero-tolerance are supposed to stop the trade?
Indeed. And also consider the opportunity cost here: all the drive, creativity, and talent that is going into making subs (in just this case; the incentives are such that drug dealers high on the food chain surely do a lot of interesting, creative, and risky things) could be diverted to something else--anything else--more productive. We're all missing out.
Re: Inside Seized Drug-Smuggling Submarines
#20Ahead of the curve back in 2009, Vice Magazine did a humorous and brilliant mini-documentary on this very story. It's a very revealing look into exactly what was going on.