Alex Trelinski
EUROPE’S first ‘home-built’ narco-submarine has been seized by the Policia Nacional from a San Roque warehouse in southern Andalucia.
Officers stumbled on the nine-metre-long craft last month at the industrial premises during a wide-ranging international drugs-busting operation.
The three-metre wide sub had a couple of 200 horsepower engines.
It was made out of fibre with plywood panels attached to a structural frame, and the capacity to carry two tons of cargo.
Policia Nacional chief, Rafael Perez, said: “The vessel never actually took to water, but we believe it was going to sail to meet a main ship to take on drugs, possibly cocaine, before returning to Spain.”
“It is like an iceberg,” he said of the vessel’s structure.
“In practice, nearly all of it goes under water apart from the top, which is the only part of it that would be seen from another ship or a helicopter.”
A key reason for the sub’s bright blue colour was that it would give the prying eyes of the authorities that the false impression that it was a pleasure vessel.
The first narco-sub to be intercepted in Europe was off the Galicia coast in November 2019 with three tons of cocaine packaged up in 152 bundles on it.
It had spent a month travelling across the Atlantic Ocean.
