Posted on 12/22/2005 1:27:54 AM PST by FreedomPoster
Police in Colombia say they have found a half-built submarine in a warehouse in a suburb of the capital Bogota (2,250 metres (7,500 ft) above sea level,). Police chief General Luis Ernesto Gilibert said Russian documents were found alongside the partially-completed vessel.
He said the 30 metre (100ft) vessel would have been capable of carrying huge quantities of cocaine or heroin.
He speculated that, once completed, the submarine would have been disassembled and taken by lorry to to Colombia’s Pacific or Caribbean coast.
When police raided the warehouse in the suburb of Facatativa they found the building equipped with closed-circuit cameras but devoid of people.
High quality
Instead there was the startling sight of a sophisticated submarine under construction.
“It was between 30% and 40% complete and had its engine room ready,” General Gilibert said.
“The technology is advanced and the workmanship of high quality.”
The Russian documents at the site led police to speculate that the Russian mafia or Russian technicians were involved in its construction.
Bogota is landlocked and lies 2,250 metres (7,500 ft) above sea level, but is a source of high-quality building materials - which may explain why it was chosen as a submarine boatyard.
Submarines have been used by Columbian drug smugglers before - in 1997 two mini-subs were seized off the Caribbean port of Santa Marta.
Huge
But this submarine is a much bigger vessel.
“In 32 years I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Leo Arreguin, the US Drug Enforcement Administration director in Colombia.
“This is huge. We’re talking about being able to load up to 200 tonnes of cocaine in this submarine.”
Mr Arreguin said documents discovered at the site showed that two Americans may also have been involved, but did not elaborate.
Hmmmm, agreed.
Check out #8; it seems the site I linked was recycling news from 5 years ago.
You can never be real sure that anyone is good at finding something they don't think is there. And a sophisticated small submarine ("huge" relative only to tiny minisubs) "should" not exist, therefore is likely to escape notice.Or so the theory must have run . . .
Next week the site reporting this sub will report on the JFK murder as new news.lol
Exactly!
On the other hand, it could make the Columbia to Marseille run with zero chance of detection. ;)
Is this not the equivalent of building a boat in one's basement? ;-)
i knew i had seen something like this before
Very much the same sort of idiocy, only bumped up a quantum leap in magnitude.
I was thinking the same thing. I can see terrorist surfacing off our coast, dropping off insurgants or firing missiles at close range.
"On the other hand, it could make the Columbia to Marseille run with zero chance of detection."
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Not a chance. If a codfish farts in the North Atlantic, we know it.
Should have been posted in breaking news.
I know this was posted just recently, but any Idea of when this sub was actually found?
SFC
Looking at the photo as a professional mariner I spot things a lot of the other posters overlook.
I see two attractive females.
5 years ago!
I think post 8 found the BBC version from 2000. It's in the thread, in any case.
Yes. Looks like the same sub even.
Ok. Thanks.
We thought it was old news - just wanted to make sure.
Noah's Ark!
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