Remember those fiberglass drug subs?
Back here I mentioned a new topic of concern for the Homeland Security business: homemade fiberglass submarines that could be used to carry terrorists or WMD’s ashore. The shipbuilders have ties to the FARC.
Well, they caught another one Wednesday off the coast of Mexico, which is farther north than we’ve seen them so far:
Mexico’s navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast on Wednesday and arrested its four-man crew.
Similar vessels carrying cocaine have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but navy spokesman Capt. Benjamin Mar said the seizure is a first for Mexico.*
Just because they keep trying this method, I suspect a lot of them are getting through and we only see headlines for the odd one that the authorities catch. I also suspect that these craft are mainly for use ferrying cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, where the cartels have no trouble carrying it overland into the U.S., and we’re not likely to see one puttering through Morro Bay anytime soon.
But–if we somehow got a border fence built, it would be interesting to see whether the cartels would shift to submarines or tunnels for getting drugs over.
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*Raise your hand if your reaction to that story was “Mexico has a navy?” Well, they do, and good for them.
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{Post by See-Dubya.}
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Yeah, they have a Navy. They are also physically strengthening their own southern border courtesy of US taxpayers.
What do we get in return? A relatively unchecked supply of society-destroying drugs, illegal workers and criminals.
Pretty sad (and telling) that they need semi-submersibles to skirt Mexican borders, but they can freely walk across ours with their payload.
You’re BAaaaCK! We missed you see-dubya!
How’s the East coast?
Back to topic…..
With B Hussein and Mighty Mc chumming (sp) with THE RACE -( for Spanish-press 2 ..LA RAZA)
the U.S. sovereignty- security fence is in the DISTANT future!
You know these craft look just big enough to smuggle in a suitcase sized nuke, sheathed in lead to avoid detection by geiger counters…it makes me wonder…I hope I’m wrong.
Sounds like our border security folks are going to have their hands full these next few years.
He’s back, good to see-dubya.
If one of these loaded with something with more punch made it ashore … Who is to say that a country like Iran couldn’t build one of these and ship it over here by cargo ship, and launch off the coast. Iran is experimenting with all sorts of delivery systems.
I don’t even want to think about how these subs can be used to attack Navy ships. This technology has come a long way since the H. L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic. This stuff is a jihadists dream.
Mexico’s Navy
All the serious issues aside, where can I get the plans for one of these or buy one? How cool would that be.
Given the personal hygiene of most jihadists, I can’t imagine them getting that close to water.
Mexico also has a space program.
die, i love a good laugh in the a.m.
Nothing a spread of depth charges won’t cure. In a hurry.
color me skeptical but I have a feeling these drugs will find a way to the U.S. anyway.
The whole concept of the entire mexican military is amusing to me.I am sure they are “good” at what they do, but still….
Being made of fiberglass they are a primitive but effective form of stealth technology.
If they used wooden stringers (most boats do) and minimized the use of metal in the superstructure they would be very difficult to detect with radar.
A nice efficient prop running at low speed and they would be nearly undetectable by passive sonar too.
A very good reason to ally ourselves with President Uribe and kill the FARC in his back yard, before they can team up with Chavez, Achmajimnycricket, and the rest of the axis of weasels.
Yes May-he-ko has a Navy. Mexican Navy Day is June 1st each year. That day in El Centro (the center of Mexico City) you will see many men in naval uniforms walking around. Very strange to the visitor, since Mexico City is at least 300 by 1 miles away from the nearest ocean. “By 1 mile” because the capitol is over one mile in elevation above sea level.
My initial reaction was that the Mexican Navy’s spokeman’s surname is “Mar.” I believe that means “ocean” en español. That must be pretty hot crap around the office.
I remember reading 2007 Colombian reports that said, working directly with the US Coast Guard, the Colombian Navy was somehow using intel and satellite technology to nail these suckers as soon as they pulled away from land. But who really knows?
Colombian Forces under Uribe’s leadership have definitely shown themselves to have an upper edge over recent FARC activity, no?
Yes, of course Mexico has a Navy, See-Dub. They have an Air Force, too!
http://k41.pbase.com/g6/64/556864/2/82246966.BrLRF4MY.jpg
Die Hippie, Die Mexico has even sent a Mexican into space!!! Seriously!!
Rodolfo Neri Vela
Gosh ! Michelle I thought this was common knowledge. Obviously you did not spend enough time in the southwest. he he he
I only know this because my uncle served in the Mexican Navy and lives in Mazatlan.
It is fairly easy to catch these boats as they do not have the hydrodynamics to truly “run silent”. The boats are more of a threat for short runs (Mexico/Central America/Caribbean/Canada) than from South America
I’m not sure this is true. It’s not simply a matter of hearing them. It’s a matter of discriminating them from the background noise. Do you know whether or not they have a loud, discrete frequency?
Most likely won’t see a drug sub in Morro Bay (a beautiful quiet little harbor) but that little town is also a liberal bastion and so I would think theres more than a few snow blind friends looking for a little comfort for their minds.
Part of the war on drugs I’m sure is (or should be) is the transport of drug money back to the cartels.
If they can’t get their money, they might quit shipping.
Maybe a real reward for turning in the location of drug money would help.
Where did Rodolfo stow away? I didn’t know the shuttle had a trunk.
corkie,
since it seems you might also know a thing or two about this, you should know that active and passive sonar systems deployed by most modern navies (even the almighty Mexican navy) and coast guards can easily distinguish large, improperly constructed moving objects underwater. The fact that these vessels are also utilizing commercial off the shelf boat engines makes their detection even easier
Colombian drug traffickers have been caught using a small submarine to smuggle 5.8 tons of cocaine to the United States.
Detection isn’t the challenge. Discrimination is.
Imagine a sonar system indicating the presence of 50 fishing boat engines OR so many engines that the system can’t tell one boat from the other. In such a case, the sonar doesn’t help enforcement officials locate anything.
The best bet is to use the captured vessels for imaging radar tests – then disseminate the type of image it produces. (These vessels aren’t stealth enough to hide from imaging radars.)
I believe I read that some of these subs can be unmanned and controlled from hundreds of miles away.
#26 corkie said:
#16
Could this be part of what I remember reading? Or is all radar surface based, and sat technology separate?
I’m not an expert on this stuff, but I am fascinated.
This is a pretty broad statement. The “intel” could have been tipsters or undercovers. I don’t know what type of satellite sensors would have been used for these operations.
If the vessel is already at sea, then I would think that the best imaging radars would be those employed by aircraft.
George Bush is evil….I voted for him and regret it ……he is part of the plan to surrender the sovreigntry of this country. He is disgusting.
Yeah, all Bush’s fault. I think we’ve heard enough of that, being an election year. I suppose congress, the SCOTUS, and state/city governments are real upset with Bush too, for making them allow illegals in, against their wishes.