Monday 15 December
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Nicaragua As A “Family
Dictatorship” Claims
Former Minister
Home-Made
Mini-Subs Smuggle Cocaine From Colombia
Flooding Leaves 20,000
Homeless In Northern
Colombia
Brazil To Host Four
Latin America Summits
Bolivia, Chile Senate
Commissions to Meet in
La Paz
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Home-Made Mini-Subs
Smuggle Cocaine From
Colombia
Los Angeles Times
TUMACO, Colombia –
Squat, bull-necked and
sullen-looking, Enrique
Portocarrero hardly
seems a dashing
character out of Jules
Verne science fiction.
But law enforcement
officers dubbed him
Captain Nemo, after the
dark genius of 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea.
They say the 45-year-old
designed and built as
many as 20 fiberglass
submarines for drug
traffickers to haul
cocaine from southern
Colombia to Mexico and
Central America.
Capping a three-year
investigation that
involved U.S. and
British agents, Colombia
arrested Mr.
Portocarrero last month
in the violent port city
of Buenoventura, where
police say he led a
double life as a shrimp
fisherman.
They swooped down on a
hidden "shipyard" in a
mangrove swamp and
destroyed two of the
vessels, which police
say were each capable of
carrying 8 tons of
cocaine.
"He had a marvelous
criminal vision,"
Colombian Navy Capt.
Luis German Borrero
said. "He introduced
innovations such as a
bow that produced very
little wake, a conning
tower that rises only a
foot above the water,
and a valve system that
enables the crew to
scuttle the ship in 10
minutes."
Officials allege that
Mr. Portocarrero helped
invent
"semi-submersibles" that
don't dive and resurface
like true submarines,
but cruise just below
the surface.
The creations are
difficult for
counternarcotics
officials to detect on
the open seas because
their tiny wakes create
a negligible radar
"footprint." Also,
authorities say, the
boats' exhaust is
released through tubing
below the ocean surface,
frustrating heat-sensing
equipment.
However, there has been
a quantum leap in
detections and captures
of semi-submersibles in
the last two years.
Fifteen have been
seized, destroyed or
scuttled so far this
year in the Pacific and
Caribbean, up from only
one in 2006.
Among other factors,
authorities believe the
traffickers have
resorted to the subs
because of tighter
controls on Colombian
and Ecuadorean fishing
vessels used to conceal
drugs.
The Colombian navy and
police also claim better
success using speedboats
supplied by the U.S. to
chase down outboard
boats. |
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