Colombia seizes first unmanned narco-sub fitted with Starlink
The vessel was believed to be on a trial run by a drug trafficking cartel
The Colombian navy on Wednesday announced its first seizure of an unmanned narco-submarine equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast.
The vessel was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources based in the region said they believed it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel.
“It was being tested and was empty,” a naval spokeswoman said.
Manned semi-submersibles 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 further afield, crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The latest find, announced by Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo at a press conference, is the first reported discovery in South American waters of a drone narco-submarine.