- published: 11 Jul 2013
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A narco-submarine (also called narco-sub, drug sub and Bigfoot submarine) is a type of custom-made ocean-going self-propelled submersible vessel built by drug traffickers to smuggle drugs. They are especially known to be used by Colombian drug cartel members to export cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, which is often then transported overland to the United States.
The first known vessels, detected in 1993, were semi-submersibles since they could not dive: most of the craft was submerged with little more than the cockpit and the exhaust gas pipes above the water. Modern narco-submarines are fully submersible, designed specifically to be difficult to detect visually or by radar, sonar and infrared systems.
During the 1980s, go-fast boats became the drug-smuggling vessel of choice in many parts of the world. These boats can be detected by radar; as radar coverage improved, Colombian drug cartels started using less easily detected semi-submersibles from the 1990s.
The first time the U.S. Coast Guard found one, authorities dubbed it Bigfoot because they had heard rumors that such things existed, but none had actually been seen. It was late 2006 when a Bigfoot was seized 145 kilometers (90 mi) southwest of Costa Rica carrying several tons of cocaine. In 2006 US officials say they detected three; in 2008 they were spotting an average of ten per month, but only one out of ten was intercepted. Few were seized as their crews scuttle them upon interception and they sink within a minute or so.