Updated: Cocaine-smuggling submarine built in Guyana signals big drug groups shifting operations here

Last Updated on Friday, 15 August 2014, 2:02 by GxMedia

This 65-foot long long Self-Propelled Semi-Submersible vessel was found in the Waini area, North West District

Guyanese law enforcement authorities believe that a cocaine-smuggling submarine found in the Waini area, North West District was made in Guyana to move large amounts of cocaine to Africa and other ‎parts of the world.
Officials said the 65-feet long by 12 feet wide and seven feet deep semi-submersible was also fitte‎d with a diesel engine. No cocaine was found in the vessel. Police, soldiers and Customs Anti Narcotics Unit agents were working on a number of leads in the hope of arresting persons.

Sources said groups of cocaine barons have set their sights on that section of Guyana”s coast to take the illicit drug and then transship it non-traditional destinations on a trans-Atlantic route.

With the US and Colombia choking off the Pacific route to Central America and the United States, the source said traffickers are turning their attention to Guyana as a new staging ground.

Colombian drug barons are widely known to use fibre-glass submarines to move large amounts of cocaine from South America to the Caribbean and parts of the southern United States (US)

The use of such vessels to move large amounts of cocaine is aimed at eluding air reconnaissance and sea patrols.

The US regards Guyana, with its largely un-policed borders, as a mjajor transshipment point for South American cocaine.