Narco Submarines
23rd March 2023
The narco submarine phenomenon is reaching new heights. 2019 yielded a bumper crop of narco-submarines, and it looks set to continue in 2020. These purpose-built vessels are one way Colombian cartels smuggle drugs. Routes take drugs up the Pacific towards Central America (and onwards to the United States), across the Caribbean and over the Atlantic to Europe and East Africa. Based on open source intelligence there were over 40 reported incidents in 2019. This compares to just two a decade earlier. But this is just the tip of the iceberg because most get through.