Cocaine Submarine

I've seen these before, but they usually rate a second look.

With huge profits as the lure, drug traffickers in Colombia use every possible method to ship their cocaine to market. And, if the latest trend is any sign, they're as ingenious as ever.

Colombia's navy has been detecting the increasing use of submarines to transport tons of cocaine.

Everyone seems to know there's money in drug smuggling. That the smugglers are making their own submarine service shows both how much money there is as well as how determined and inventive the smugglers are.

This item, from the same story, is also interesting:

"This craft comes with a fiberglass cover, on the outside and on the inside," says Lt. Manuel Higuera.

Indeed, that's what gives the vessel a leg up over the Navy. With little metal to speak of, it's hard to detect with sonar.

I wonder if that was on purpose. Fiberglass can be easier to work with than steel and can take fewer men since it's much lighter. That it's harder to detect on sonar could be a side effect or a design consideration. No idea really, but it's an interesting question.