As the use of drug laden submersibles creeps up the coastline of South America, these craft finally came into the range of the Mexican Navy (they have a Navy? – sorry – I digress). After Columbian authorities captured or sunk about 8 or 9 of these semi submersibles loaded with drugs – one wandered into Mexican waters and got captured. Mexico’s navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast on Wednesday and arrested its four-man crew. The seizure is a first for Mexico.
The 30-foot makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles off the southern state of Oaxaca, representatives reported. The green-topped, arrowhead-shaped vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours after being detected, and the crew was taken into custody without resistance.
The suspects were flown by helicopter to the city of Huatulco, where they told reporters they left the Colombian coastal town of Buenaventura a week ago. The crew members said they were fishermen forced to make the journey by drug traffickers who threatened to harm their families.
“We didn’t know what was on board because we never saw it. It was sealed,” said one of the four, Jose Felix Enriquez. The navy said in a statement that the sub was apparently packed with cocaine, but authorities were still determining how much was on board. The capture has been reported as was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine.
The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels believed to contain cocaine, possibly tons. Its disheveled crew of four emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, saying they had shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death.
Capt. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican navy, said authorities were hauling the “very well-constructed” vessel to shore and had yet to weigh the contraband, which he said likely amounted to “tons.”
U.S. officials say the craft are being used more often because they are more difficult to detect by radar. The seizures represent a fraction of the 40 or so that have been spotted since 2007, according to U.S. authorities. “When they think they might be caught, the crews tend to scuttle them,” said Jose Ruiz, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, which monitors drug activities. “They get out of them, sink them, and the drugs go to the bottom of the ocean so they can’t be recovered for evidence.”
Wednesday’s seizure of the olive-green, surfboard-shaped vessel in the Pacific Ocean about 125 miles from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, was the first off the coast of Mexico, authorities said.
In a statement, the Mexican navy said its forces moved in on the vessel after receiving intelligence from “national and international agencies.” Of course since this happened closer to the USA, the Mexican authorities couldn’t have pulled this capture off by themselves – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that U.S. intelligence led Mexican forces to a small submarine captured this week packed with 5.8 tons of cocaine.
Chertoff called the vessel’s seizure Wednesday off Oaxaca state in southern Mexico “a great example of our cooperation.” “We shared information with the Mexican navy, but the Mexican navy acted alone in actually executing the seizure,” Chertoff told a news conference in Mexico City.
July 19, 2008 at 5:59 pm
It’s time to remove all the politicians that promote prohibition. How many more lives have to be needlessly devastated or lost? Prohibited drugs are way easier for kids to get than regulated drugs! Prohibition never works it just causes crime and violence. The year alcohol prohibition ended violent crime fell by 65 percent.
The USA spends 69 billion tax dollars every year on the drug war, builds 900 new prison beds and hires 150 more correction officers every two weeks, arrests someone on a drug charge every 17 seconds, jails more people than any nation and has killed over 100,000 citizens in the drug war.
In 1914 when there were no prohibited drugs 1.3% of our population was addicted to drugs, today 1.3% of our population is still addicted to drugs and there’s way more crime and violence because of the huge profits prohibition generates.
Guns have absolutely nothing to do with using drugs, they have to do with drug prohibition. Al Capone didn’t kill people because he was drunk, he killed people because they got between him and his illegal drug money. The same goes for the drug gangsters of today.
Every time you look at the news you see more and more drug busts involving bigger and bigger quantities of drugs, not less and less. There are much more effective, far less expensive and far less harmful ways to deal with drug use and addiction than the war on drugs.
There’s only been one drug success story in US history, tobacco, by far the most deadly and one of the most addictive drugs. Almost half the users quit because of regulation, accurate information and medical treatment. No one went to jail and no one got killed.
The right; to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and many others have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
If you are called for jury duty and you don’t agree with the law the person is charged with, you have the right to vote not guilty, no matter what evidence is produced. Jurors implementing this right in all non-violent drug cases will shut down the ridiculous laws of prohibition. One juror in each case is all it takes. The bottom line is a juror has the right to judge not only the accused person but also the LAW the person is accused of breaking. Don’t be intimidated stick to your position Vote Not Guilty in all non-violent drug cases.
You are not going to get arrested if you contact your elected government representatives and tell them you’re in favor of changing the drug laws, or if you get signatures on a drug policy reform petition, so what are you afraid of? If not now, when… If not you, who? Are you one of the millions of Americans that has become addicted to the drug war? Drug prohibition has been going on for decades with zero positive results and tons of negative results. Are you willing to be part of the solution?
Even the World Health Organization has documented the Failure of U.S. Drug Policies, read the article here, join the mailing list, watch the videos:
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