“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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The Colombian navy on Wednesday announced its first seizure of an unmanned narco sub equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast.
The semi submersible vessel was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources based in the region believed it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel.
“It was being tested and was empty,” a naval spokeswoman confirmed.
Manned semisubmersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine north from Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico.
But in recent years, they have been sailing much farther, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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The Colombian navy said the drone semi submersible was owned by the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest drug trafficking group and had the capacity to transport 1.5 tons of cocaine.
This is not the first time a Starlink antenna has been used at sea by suspected drug traffickers.
In November, Indian police seized a giant 6 ton consignment of meth worth $4.25 billion in a vessel steered remotely by Starlink near the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.