Narco-Submarine

A narco-submarine, also called a drug sub or narco-sub, is a type of custom-built, ocean-going, self-propelled vessel, semi-submersible or fully submersible, built by or for drug smuggling organizations to move narcotics undetected across open water. Newer semi-submersible designs sit almost fully underwater specifically to reduce the likelihood of detection by visual observation, radar, sonar or infrared systems, and cargo capacity varies widely with vessel size, though several tons is typical; the largest known single cargo, 7.7 tonnes, was seized aboard a semi-submersible craft in 2015. Some contemporary narco-submarines are capable of crossing the entire Atlantic Ocean, and vessels captured in the central Pacific during the mid-2020s indicate that operators are building craft durable enough to attempt the far longer voyage across the Pacific to Oceania.