BOGOTA — Colombian police found a half-built
submarine in a warehouse in a suburb of the capital Bogota. Police chief General Luis Ernesto Gilibert said Russian documents were found alongside the partially-completed submarine.
He said the 100ft
craft would have been capable of carrying huge quantities of cocaine or heroin.
He speculated that, once completed, the submarine would have been disassembled and taken to Colombia's Pacific or Caribbean
coast.
When police raided the warehouse in the suburb of Facatativa they found the building equipped with closed-circuit cameras but devoid of people.
“It was between 30 percent and 40 percent complete
and had its engine room ready,” General Gilibert said. “The technology is advanced and the workmanship of high quality.”
The Russian documents found in the warehouse lead police to speculate that the
Russian mafia or Russian technicians were involved in its construction.
Bogota is landlocked and lies 7,500 ft above sea level, but is a source of high-quality building materials — which may explain why
it was chosen as a submarine boatyard.
Submarines have been used by Columbian drug smugglers before — in 1997 two mini-subs were seized off the Caribbean port of Santa Marta.
But this submarine is a much bigger boat.
“In 32 years I've never seen anything like this,” said Leo Arreguin, the US Drug Enforcement Administration director in Colombia.
“This is huge. We're talking
about being able to load up to 200 tons of cocaine in this submarine,” Arreguin added.
Arreguin said documents discovered at the site showed that two Americans may also have been involved, but did not
elaborate.
