Colombians who thought they had seen everything in the war on drugs were treated to something new this year: cocaine smuggling in a submarine.
In images shown on national television, several men emerged from the makeshift fibreglass craft, opened hatches designed to let in water and sent the submarine and its cargo of cocaine to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Even though the they had traces of the drug on their clothing, the smugglers were rescued from their lifeboat and, in the absence of further evidence, released without charge.
"We kept the cargo from being distributed in the international market, which is our main goal," said Navy Capt. Gustavo Angel, who estimated the contents at about 10 tonnes (tons). "So it was a partial success."
As the authorities step up efforts to stop airplanes and speedboats long used to export drugs from the world's biggest cocaine producing country, traffickers are turning to vessels that travel under water to carry on their trade.
From his base near the Pacific port city of Buenaventura Angel is helping lead the crackdown on the blimp-shaped vessels.
With only breathing tubes and mini navigation equipment above the surface, they leave almost no wake, making them hard to spot from the air. They can sometimes be spied by coast guard patrols and their sound can be picked up by Navy submarines equipped with sonar.
Angel estimates that more than 30 tonnes of cocaine have been intentionally sent to the bottom of the ocean by fleeing crew members over the last two and a half years, which makes authorities wonder how much is getting through to the U.S. market.
The diesel-fuelled craft are used mostly on the Pacific coast to take drugs to Central America and Mexico for eventual sale in the United States.
The Navy estimates the boats travel up to two weeks to get to their destinations. They can transport up to 10 tonnes of cocaine on each voyage, after which they are scuttled to avoid questions.
Each costs about $600,000 (304,000 pounds) to make, carries four to five crew members and is outfitted with one or two propellers, allowing it to travel at 10 to 12 knots, the Navy says.
