The Colombian Navy announced yesterday Friday that it had seized the largest improvised drug smuggling submarine ever detected in the history of the country, thirty meters long and three wide, which was loaded with three tons of cocaine.

The semi-submersible was found on Tuesday as it sailed towards Central America, following one of the most used drug-trafficking routes to the US market, the world’s largest consumer of Colombian cocaine.

Images released by Colombian authorities show the boat in the water, as well as the cargo it was carrying on land: hundreds of packages of drugs, labeled “Toyota” (traffickers like to put signatures, often using world-famous brands, on the their traditions) and, among them, three men who were arrested.

It is the largest vessel of its kind ever seized since the first one was spotted in 1993 in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country.

In three decades, the Colombian Navy has seized 228 such improvised vessels, which depart loaded with tons of drugs across the Pacific to the US and sometimes even across the Atlantic to Europe.

The three Colombian suspects arrested in the operation testified that they were “forced by a drug trafficking organization to board and drive the semi-submersible vessel (…) to Central America”.

The three men, 63, 54 and 45 years old, were brought to Tumaco (south), to be brought before justice.

According to PN calculations, the amount seized represents a loss of 103 million dollars for the traffickers.

Improvised submarines, built in secret, are usually hand-built and lightweight, generally sailing very close to the surface since they are unable to fully submerge; however, they are capable of traveling much longer distances than the authorities’ speedboats and are difficult to be detected.

Colombian law prohibits the use, construction, marketing, possession and transportation of such vessels, subject to a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Despite the so-called war on drugs for half a century, supported and funded by the US, Colombia continues to break records in terms of cocaine production.

In 2021, the surface of coca crops – the plant whose seeds are the raw material in the production of the drug – exceeded 2,040,000 hectares and the production of cocaine hydrochloride amounted to 1,400 tons, according to UN calculations.