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 Colombias 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 Ive never seen anything like this, said Leo Arreguin, the US Drug Enforcement Administration director in Colombia.
This is huge. Were 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.
Based on this and another pic at the source link, hull inside diameter looks to be around 2.5 meters.
Check this out! Ping your navy friends.
They are asking to be deep sixed.
It does not make sense. There are thousands of boats in the ocean that don't draw attention but one sub will capture the attention of the US Navy.
But, you got to hand it to these guys they are very creative.
They are creative!
This is a old story or they found another sub being made up in the mountains.
I think someone has a conceptual error about how a submarine works It needs to be in the water, not in the mountains! Now the question is where the drug cartel's air force is.
That looks like what - 10 inch thick or so steel sandwich walls on the sub?
I assume the other outer 10 inches of exterior is the ballast / dive tanks?
Can a FReeper Submariner mention what they think of what they see in these pictures?
Well, that's interesting! So this site is recycling old news.
"200 tonnes of cocaine"
So many noses, so little time.
Drug Run Silent, Drug Run Deep?
Well....2000......2005....
Might not be drugs. There are alot of camel jockeys with extra pocket change right now. Drugs would be a good cover. 200 tonnes is quite a bit of WMD cargo capacity. Since they were surprised by what they found, it might have had a chance to get one run. How many more are building?
Didn't this same story surface a couple of years ago?
Russian documents were found alongside the partially-completed vessel.
Our friends.
Those crazy Columbians..........
Good location to build it, who'da thunkit per se.... We can only hope it was for delivering "drugs" to the US coast........
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