Police seize submarine used by Colombia rebels to transport drugs

Google – AFP, 6 November 2013

Antinarcotics police officers prime explosive charges to blow up a  laboratory

 for processing cocaine base seized from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of 

Colombia (FARC) in Meta department, Colombia, on January 25, 2011 

(AFP/File, Guillermo Legaria)

Bogota — A semi-submersible boat of the type used by leftist FARC rebels to transport cocaine has been seized and destroyed in southwest Colombia, police said Tuesday.

The amphibious vessel, estimated to cost about $1.5 million, was discovered stowed on dry land in a forested area in the country's southwestern Narino province.

Officials said in a statement that they discovered it thanks to a tip from an informant. It measured 12 meters (39 feet) by 3.5 meters (11.5 feet).

Colombian authorities received assistance from agents with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Officials said they destroyed eight such boats last year in Colombia, one of the world's top producers of cocaine.

Such submersible vessels have the ability of cruising below the surface of the water, often evading detection by drug enforcement authorities.