Drug Subs

More than 50 “drug subs” have been seized by law enforcement from Ecuador to Mexico over recent months. Many of these vessels are considered “semi submersibles,” capable of travelling 5-10 meters below the water’s surface and carrying hundreds or thousands of pounds of drugs. At this depth, they tend to leave a surface wake, allowing law enforcement to spot them.

However, this isn’t always the case. The most sophisticated sub, uncovered in Ecuadoran swamplands near the Colombian border a fortnight ago, measured 100 feet long, allowed for nine feet of standing (or stacking) room, was air conditioned, and had a periscope. Law enforcement believes it cost $4 million to build, and on its maiden voyage could have hauled 10 tons of cocaine.

These seizures not only hint at the craftiness of drug traffickers, but also the scope of the problem. Far from being a Columbian or Mexican problem, drug trafficking relies on a slew of transit countries along the route from the point of production, generally in the Andes with cocaine but Central America and Mexico in the case of marijuana and meth, to the US consumer. The DEA estimates that 75% of cocaine in the US travels through Guatemala, with disturbing effect. The murder rate in Guatemala is twice as high as in Mexico, and the Guatemalan government is “being completely overrun” by Mexican drug syndicates. It is these transit countries, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, known as “the Northern Triangle,” that are really at risk of becoming failed states.

The irony here seems to be that as drug trafficking from the Andes has gradually shifted from the “sea route”—flying and shipping cocaine through the Caribbean—to the “land route”—transport through Central America and Mexico, the favored method of drug transport is semi submersible. Hopefully, the plight facing the Northern Triangle will not continue to navigate under the surface of Western policymaker’s attention. The high tide could be devastating.

Photo from CNN.com