![]() ![]() ![]() The UNDOC has so far identified two types of water drones. “All the space is distributed between the load, engines and fuel.” With that, they can cross from the African coast to the coast of Spain,” Bartolomé said. These unmanned vehicles “can be controlled remotely, with, for instance, a tablet, and these vessels have a 30-to-50-kilometer autonomy. Transnational criminal organizations are also building and operating drones that cover shorter distances with illicit cargo. The vehicles now have global positioning systems and communications equipment to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean, resupply in the sea and arrive at the exact point in Europe where the cargo must be delivered.Įlectric propulsion poses technical challenges that are being overcome as law enforcement catches up with boat-operating criminals.īut this is only a small part of the whole picture. ![]() Francisco Cubides, Colombia National Navy commander. We know that there are fishing ships that support them with water, fuel, to continue their journey to the north on the Pacific, to the north on the Caribbean or to the west on the Atlantic,” said Adm. “This kind of vehicles draw their success from their support at sea. Nevertheless, the logistics network may be only the tip of the iceberg. Sea transport dominates logistics, and authorities estimate that the illicit cargo is usually hidden in containers.Īll interviewed sources estimated that a small portion of trafficking (less than 10%) travels on semisubmersibles. Other illicit substances are seeing increased interdictions as well.Ĭoca cultivation, the raw material for producing the alkaloid, has tripled between 20, while cocaine production doubled from 900 tons in 2014, according to the UNDOC. Cocaine seizures by the United States went from 150 tons in 2020 to an estimated 250 tons in 2021, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC). Coast Guard.Ĭocaine smuggling showed signs of sharp growth after the pandemic. Mark Fedor, director, Joint Interagency Task Force South at the U.S. “In 2006, they interdicted the first drug submarine, and the Colombians were good enough to allow us to bring it up to Key West,” said Rear Adm. The 1990s and early 2000s saw these vessels evolve until the Colombian navy intercepted a submarine in what is now considered a pivotal moment in these operations. “They started with boats with a wooden structure covered with cloth, like kayaks, and later that cloth was replaced by some type of glass fiber on top, but definitely these were very simple devices and now, they replace diesel engines for batteries, or they even have both systems,” Bartolomé explained. “There’s an increasing and intensive use of these devices, as the quality improves with time,” said Mariano Bartolomé, transnational crime lecturer at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C., a school linked with the Organization of American States. This whack-a-mole game sees cartels improve the seaworthiness and technologies employed in building these boats. Drug traffickers expand the use of submersible vessels to transport illicit substances as states struggle to detect them. ![]()
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