Massive Increase In Narco Submarines Smuggling Across Atlantic

There have been four narco-submarine interdictions in the Atlantic this year, compared to one last year and none since 2019 before that. From rare to normal, there are indications that the transatlantic smuggling route is getting busy! Unscripted and unedited, just raw knowledge sharing.

[relwalretep]

That flat panel at the back of the rigid looks a bit like a starlink unit

[marcusott]

Is it possible that some actually only cut down the hulls of sailing yachts. Would be easier than laying down the whole glassfibre hull in the middle of the jungle.
Old sailing yachts are cheap and prolific in the Caribbean.

[petergerdes]

Who needs food when you've got 2 metric tons of coke?

[andresmartinezramos]

1:40 the main reasons are an interesting combination.

Most of the narco trade from South America came to Spain through Galicia, it has an extensive and difficult coast.
There are many sailors in the area and they would operate the dinghys that rendezvous with ships carrying the drugs towards Europe.
The inland area is also rugged, foresty and with small villages, making for very easy hiding spots.
A number of distribution networks exist because of the already existing drug smuggling.

As to why it started. Two main reasons. It is one of the closer areas to the Caribbean and many Galicians emigrated across to South America setting the relations and knowledge that would latter on help with the smuggling.

[VictorGarciaR]

Great video overall, just a small point: In the map first shown at 1:15, the end of the route is not aimed at Galicia (located just on top of Portugal). It is instead pointed to the border between Spain and France. The distance itself is not a big deal (370 miles - 600km) but the important thing is the reason why they choose Galicia. Unlike the Canary Islands it is in the european mainland, and the coast is isolated, rocky but with plenty of small beaches between clifs, low population, etc. It is ideal for clandestine operations.
Last year cocaine bails were found of the coast of northen Galicia and Asturias, someone ditched them and the currents spread them on the beaches of the area. (local currents flow towards france)

Source: (1) I am a local and (2) It is not the first time ilegal goods are smugled there. You just need to find a local fisherman with dubious morals, they know the coastline and are financially struggling

[patavinity]

If the cartels ever figure out teardrop hulls and nuclear reactors, we'll really be in trouble.

[WildBillCox]

6:07 Four outboard motors. We used to call them Cigarette Boats in the Caribbean. Used by smugglers, of course.

[PRAR]

As a yachtsman I find the route given to be in need of modification - due to current and wave height/patten in order to stop constant exposeure/stress due to cresting🌊 . Straight across to Africa (South equatorial) and then North to Cabo Verde etc is more likely.

[mytube]

My boat, which is probably half the displacement and hull volume of these trans-oceanic narco subs, cruises at five knots on half a liter of diesel per nautical mile. If we double that, and then consider that there's around 3500 nm between Brazil and Spain, you'd need roughly three tons of diesel to make the trip unrefueled. A bit more with reserves. That's a lot, but would probably work for these boats.

[williambinkley]

I recall an incident in the early 90s of a couple of submarines being discovered being built in Columbia. This technology has been maturing for a long time.

[ozAqVvhhNue]

4:00 The term Semi-Submarine could have maybe prevented people from complaining about semantics. But please don't stop using Narco Submarine, it just sounds way cooler :D

[almerindaromeira]

I've seen a short documentary about the RIB interceptions in Portugal. Every other day the police/navy goes out to chase them.
The theory is that there are several offloading points south of Portugal where the RIBs start their runs to Portugal and Spain. They know they are being watched by the C-295s and P-3 aircraft. Speed is their main advantage.
In Portugal the police is allowed to use apprehended hardware, so there is an arms race going on between good and bad guys. In the graveyard where they impound the wrecked RIBs you see a lot of horsepower. They run the outboards aground if need be, the boats seem almost disposable.

[joshualux]

Thank you for your videos. I’m always looking forward to them.

[mbeard]

I got the opportunity to stand on one in 2008 when I was in the Coast Guard at the small boat station Key West.

[WildBillCox]

Self driving cars . . . how long until we get self navigating narco subs?

[Nurse_Diesel]

Looks like a Starlink panel on the back of that inflatable. beautiful boat by the way.

[abrunosON]

There is a distinction between "street" cocaine and what these narco-subs are transporting, that is, cocaine paste which is the not directly consumable and once delivered is "cut" with pharmacological sedatives (I know that codeine, a dental local anesthetic, was used until the 90s) and then impurities added, like sawdust in soviet bread, both of which have considerable lower value and not economically sensible to be transported along with the base-paste. What these ships transport has to be further processed near their destination which means that once the cargo arrives the load is multiplied a minimum of three times (one ton becomes 3 ton, 1/3 paste, 1/3 sedative and 1/3 of impurities) but if I remember correctly it can go up to 6 times.

My dad had his career in the Drug Repression Department of the Federal Police in Brazil and I read a couple of his files from the late 80s.

[brianomalley]

Another very informative video well done as always looking forward to the next great subject

[ned]

Awesome! Whats with the humps in the exhaust systems? Great vid, love your content.

[Pabbley]

Thanks for these, love listening to you talk about submarines!