MAFIA BUILD SUBMARINE TO RUN DRUGS

[Judi Lynn]

30 March 2006
MAFIA BUILD SUBMARINE TO RUN DRUGS
A SUBMARINE the Mafia was building to smuggle £500million of cocaine per trip into Europe has been seized by police, it was revealed yesterday.

It would have carried up to 10 tons and been able to evade coast radar which normally detects drug-running vessels.

But in a joint operation Italian and Colombian police swooped on the shipyard in Tumaco, Colombia, before it was finished.

Details of the plot were released by Piero Grasso, Italy's leading anti-Mafia investigator, after he returned from the South American country.
(snip/...)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16879986&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=mafia-build-submarine-to-run-drugs--name_page.html

[benburch]

1. Cool!

As a submarine fanatic, I have often wondered why smugglers don't use them.

[Richard Steele]

7. I suspect they use them quite often.

This is NOT the first time smugglers were caught
with an UNFINISHED submarine...
so how many, do you suppose, have they actually completed
and put into service over the last few decades?

[benburch]

8. A small submarine is not particularly difficult.

But I have a better solution; A limpet mine.

A limpet mine was a magnetic mine that attached itself to a cargo ship with the goal of it going off later when the ship was in harbor or in convoy.

A magnetic box on a cargo ship carrying contraband would likely never be noticed by anybody. When the ship make a port call in the destination country, your divers remove the box and you have your smuggling accomplished. The ship owners and the crew never knew.

[anotherdrew]

10. a drug delivery in Canada was found attached to the exterior of a ship

last year it was, somehow involved a political scandal as well.

[formercia]

11. It's been used in the past.

The 'pods' were dropped and allowed to sink to the bottom and floated to the surface when a pickup craft triggered a sonic release mechanism.

The perps were caught.

[Richard Steele]

12. I've often thought of building a small sub myself.

Considering all the thousands of folks who have built their own airplanes,
putting together a two-person minisub shouldn't be impossible
for a motivated tinkerer.

And it could pay for itself in no time if I used it
to recover a few of your limpet mines! :evilgrin:

[KansDem]

13. I'm with you!

I remember back in the 1960s "Popular Mechanics" had an issue on how someone could build a one-man sub. It wasn't completely waterproof--the upper half of the operator's body would stay dry while the the lower half would exposed to water (kind of like an upside-down canoe with windows)--but it was self-propelled and could dive and surface. I thought "Why take a chance trying to smuggle drugs either over land or on the water? Why not use this thing?" I lived in Southern California at the time and wondered if someone could launch it just south of Tijuana with a few kilos of cannabis, and sail it up to somewhere in San Diego, bypassing border security.

But then, I was just a kid...

[formercia]

14. I'm surprised Cheech and Chong didn't make a movie..... n/t

[DS1]

16. If you're half-submerged

everywhere around you is available bong water :thumbsup:

[0007]

21. In a adobe submarine it would have been a gas.

[pinniped]

2. Couldn't they have just bought one from the former Soviet Union?

?

[Shipwack]

4. -I- wouldn't wnat to sail in an used Soviet sub... better solution:

Neiman Marcus used to sell a 12 seater about 10 million, and a solo model for 1.7 million (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2004-09-29-neiman-marcus_x.htm).

The Russians have bee skimping on maintnenace for years on their boats, and many that are now being sold have just been sitting around and rusting... As for buying a new one, that would have required a whole lot of effort and stealth at an international level...

[Kipling]

3. That's... enterprising.

[rman]

5. makes me wonder if they got any "help"

[htuttle]

6. Apparently, they'd named it the "SS Luca Brazzi"

[anotherdrew]

9. odd - another such sub was found a year or two ago in the area

so they've found at least two nearly complete subs now...

[benburch]

15. I wonder what will become of it?

It might be a great buy for somebody who wanted to convert it into a pleasure craft...

Imagine having a submarine yacht!

[anotherdrew]

18. imagine? where do you think I'm typing this from?

:LOL

[benburch]

19. LOL!

I had something like the above in mind, BTW

http://www.ussubs.com/submarines/largesub.pdf <-- Brochure

[NaturalHigh]

17. I want one.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Italy impounds Mafia drug submarine

Italy impounds Mafia drug submarine
Mar 28, 2006, 17:27 GMT

ROME, Italy (UPI) -- The head of Italy`s anti-Mafia operations says a submarine a gangster group was building in Colombia to transport drugs has been impounded.

Speaking after returning from Colombia, Piero Grasso said the Calabrian Mafia had been dealing in such vast quantities of the drugs it could afford to build a submarine to transport it, reports ANSA news agency.

Grasso said the submarine would have helped the gang hide the consignment from coastal radar systems.

The Calabrian Mafia, also known as the 'Ndrangheta,' which specializes in drug smuggling from South America, is now believed to be more powerful and more dangerous than Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, the report said. The mob is estimated to generate an annual turnover of about $42 billion.
(snip/)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/article_1150638.php/Italy_impounds_Mafia_drug_submarine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mafia drugs submarine seized
Calabrian mob ordered vessel to shift Colombian cocaine
(ANSA) - Rome, March 27 - Mafia drug traffickers were building a submarine to bring cocaine from Colombia to Italy, Italy's anti-Mafia chief said Monday .

Speaking after on his return from the South American country, national anti-Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso said the Calabrian mafia, known as the 'Nrangheta, was dealing in such huge amounts of drugs that it could afford to have such an expensive mode of transport built .

He said they had chosen a submarine in order to beat coastal radar systems which detect incoming ships. "The 'Ndrangheta brings in 400 kilos of cocaine a year," Grasso said in an interview on Italian TV .

"The submarine, which was under construction in Colombia, has been impounded" .

"They were going to use the sub to elude radar controls" .

Grasso said cocaine costs just 3 dollars a gramme in Colombia and had a street value of 50-100 euros per gramme in Italy, depending on the quality .
(snip)

Since 1995, 30 town councils have been dissolved because they were deemed to be controlled by the 'Ndrangheta. Last year, dozens of local administrators received threats .
(snip/...)

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-03-27_1273959.html