http://crimeconflictnexus.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/cocaine-submarines/
(...)
"It’s common to think of drug smuggling as a low-tech process — it’s human mules swallowing cocaine, or donkeys loaded with opium. Maybe trucks or boats or small airplanes. These subs may not measure up to US naval standards, but they’re not exactly floating buckets either:
“These vessels are intelligently designed. They are not very comfortable, but they are now very seaworthy. They are capable of carrying multi-ton cargos. They can travel thousands of miles without refuel or resupply. And they are very hard to detect,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force South, which pursues drug interdiction in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
(((The kicker:)))
The sub-builders are even trying to develop a remote-controlled model, officials say. “That means no crew. That means just cocaine, or whatever, inside the boat,” said Michael Braun, a former chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration....
