09-05-2025
Inside the hunt for deathtrap narco-subs that smuggle £120m of cocaine each and flood Britain with cocaine
The sleek submarines, each painted cobalt blue to match the ocean, cut through choppy waters at remarkable rates.
Zipping from south America to Europe, each one is designed to carry the maximum amount of weight possible, and as a result can carry a maximum of three people who are trapped inside for weeks at a time with one job in mind.
Cartels are now on the offensive in the war against drugs, and have been spending heavily on their research and development to come up with their latest innovation - narco subs.
Authorities estimate that each vessel costs around $1million (£750,000) to make.
They aren't armed, instead relying on camouflage to evade detection from investigating authorities whose resources are already stretched thin.
The submarines are made deep in the jungles of south America, where cartels rule and are accountable to no one thanks to dense thickets hiding their activities.
'Narco submarines are being built in rivers and mangroves. That's why, for example, the Amazon river in Brazil, is perfect. As soon as you open Google Maps, you realise it's a labyrinth of islets and mangroves and tributaries', Javier Romero, a local journalist, told the Wall Street Journal.
'You can hide a shipyard, then you can build it, put it into the water, and with the cover of darkness you launch it into the night.'
The first was spotted in European waters in 2019, and revealed how far ahead trafficking gangs were in the cat-and-mouse game that the war on drugs has become.
One that was recently caught by Spanish authorities was believed to have travelled over 4,000 miles from Brazil to Europe over the course of 27 days, highlighting the sophistication of these machines.
Romero said: 'It was evidence that there is no control over the issue. The bad buys are way, way, way ahead of the good guys.'
So far, at least three narco-subs have been caught near Spain, though authorities estimate that as many as 30 may have avoided detections.
Galicia, Spain, has long been considered to be the perfect hub of trafficking.
Its rocky coastline means there are countless nooks and crannies for drugs to be pushed onto land, before they're send to distributors.
And for decades, the region has had significant cultural ties with Latin American cartels, meaning the human infrastructure need
Though these vessels are a new phenomenon in Europe, they have reportedly been used for decades in South America.
One vessel caught by drug cops was said to have been carrying 3,000kg of cocaine.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this submarine was carrying nearly £249,000 worth of cocaine into Europe.
As a result, port authorities across Europe are being overwhelmed by cartels. The continent takes in 90million shipping containers each year, and authorities are only able to search between two and 10 percent of containers that sit in their ports.
Last year, Royal Navy commandos stormed their first 'narco sub', seizing two-tonnes of cocaine.
Royal Marines based on patrol ship HMS Trent made the historic bust during a patrol in the Caribbean.
The secret underwater submarine is used by drug cartels to ferry huge quantities for narcotics around the world.
Powered by twin electric engines, the stealthy boats can glide undetected under the waves, carrying up to six-tonnes of drugs.
A boarding team made up of Royal Marines from 47 Commando, specialist sailors and US Coast Guard personnel, clambered aboard the vessel in waters 190 nautical miles south of the Dominican Republic.
The crack team of operators seized 2,000kg of cocaine, striking yet another huge blow to the Caribbean drugs trade. It is one of the largest seizures by British personnel of recent years.
The bust is the eighth carried out by Portsmouth-based HMS Trent, which has stropped £750m of drug reaching Britain in just seven months.
