Colombian Navy seizes unmanned ‘narco sub' equipped with Starlink antenna
The Colombian Navy has announced the first ever seizure of an unmanned "narco sub" equipped with a Starlink antenna off the Caribbean coast.
The empty semisubmersible was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources believe it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel.
"It was being tested and was empty," a naval spokeswoman confirmed to AFP.
Officials say that while there were no drugs on board, the vessel was designed to carry up to 1.5 tons of cocaine and travel a distance of about 1,200km.
While manned semisubmersibles built in secret jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine from Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico, this marks the first known discovery of an autonomous narco-submarine in South American waters.
The narco-sub surrounded by navy vessels
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 4th
The Colombian navy said the drone semisubmersible was owned by the Gulf Clan, the country's largest drug trafficking group and one of several cartels recently designated as foreign terrorist groups by the United States.
According to the US State Department, the group's "primary source of income is from cocaine trafficking, which it uses to fund its paramilitary activities'.
The submarine had two antennas including one protected with fiberglass that was connected to a Starlink satellite modem for communication.
It was also equipped with two surveillance cameras, one for navigating the vessel and the other for monitoring its engine.
Naval officials said the unmanned semi-submersible that was built in Colombia travels close to the water's surface, making it hard to detect, with only the air inlets and antenna visible above the waterline.
Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo, Chief of the Colombian Navy, told a press conference that traffickers are moving toward more advanced and unmanned smuggling systems.
He added that the use of such technology shows a shift in drug trafficking strategies toward more innovative and adaptive methods.
However, this is not the first time a Starlink antenna has been used at sea by suspected drug traffickers.
In November, Indian police seized a giant consignment of meth worth $4.25 billion in a vessel steered remotely by Starlink near the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Juana Cabezas, a researcher at Colombia's Institute for Development and Peace Studies, told AFP that powerful Mexican drug cartels, who operate in Colombia, "hired technology experts and engineers to develop an unmanned submarine" as far back as 2017.
"Removing the crew eliminates the risk of captured operators cooperating with authorities," Henry Shuldiner, an investigator for the US-based InSight Crime think tank, stated.
Shuldiner also highlighted the challenge of assembling crews to sail makeshift subs described as floating "coffins."
In 2023, a "narco sub" with two dead bodies and nearly three tons of cocaine aboard was seized off the coast of Colombia.
A near record number of the low-profile vessels were intercepted in the Atlantic and Pacific in 2024, according to the report.
Other unmanned vessels have also been detected in the Mediterranean, often used for short coastal trips between countries like Albania, Italy, Morocco, and Spain.
In another case in November 2024, a semi-submersible loaded with five tons of Colombian cocaine was seized en route to Australia.
Colombian law punishes the use, construction, marketing, possession and transportation of semisubmersibles with penalties of up to 14 years in prison.
Though commonly spotted off the coast of Colombia, narco subs have been intercepted across the globe in recent months.
Just last week, the Mexican navy seized 3.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a semisubmersible vessel off the Pacific coast, while releasing video of the "narco sub" being intercepted.
In March, Portuguese police said forces had confiscated nearly 6.5 tons of cocaine from a semisubmersible vessel off the remote Azores archipelago that was bound for the Iberian peninsula. In January, a suspected narco sub broke in two pieces as a fishing boat was towing it to a port in northwest Spain.
According to the UN drug agency, cocaine production, seizures, and use all hit record highs in 2023. Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer, has seen a sharp rise in production due to increased global demand.
Colombian law punishes the use, construction, marketing, possession, and transport of semi-submersibles with sentences of up to 14 years in prison.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
an hour ago
- Sunday World
Porn actor beat Irishman 13 times with hammer after killing partner during sex, trial told
Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, is accused of murdering couple Albert Alfonso, 62 and Paul Longworth, 71, on 8 July last year. A Colombian porn actor smashed a pensioner over the heard with a hammer at least 13 times before dismembering his body with a power tool and shoving it in a suitcase, a court heard. Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, is accused of murdering couple Albert Alfonso, 62 and Paul Longworth, 71, at their home in London on 8 July last year. Mr Longworth was Irish and Mr Alfonso was originally from France but had obtained British citizenship. Jurors have been shown horrifying footage of Mosquera stabbing Mr Alfonso to death during an extreme sex session at his flat in Scott's Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London. Albert Alfonso and Paul Longworth. He is said to have killed Mr Longworth earlier that evening by bludgeoning him repeatedly over the head with a hammer. Cause of death was described as resulting from blunt force trauma to the head. Mosquera caved in his skull by striking it with a hammer on nine different sites. The biggest injury site had been struck 'at least four' times, Woolwich Crown Court heard. As a result of the hammer smashing, Mr Longworth had multiple 'fragmented' fractures, 'some of the bone pieces had been pushed inwards. He then used the power tool to take Mr Longworth's head off and cut the rest of his body up. The remains of the two men were taken to Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol on 10 July. Police officers opened up the large suitcases to find the victims' body parts. One of the suitcases had a tag on it linking them back to an address on Scott's Road in Shepherd's Bush. Officers arrived at the address and found the heads of both Mr Longworth and Mr Alfonso inside a chest freezer. Forensic pathologist Dr Deborah Cook was asked for her conclusions after she performed a postmortem on Mr Longworth. She told the court the cause of death was 'blunt force trauma to the head.' She said: "The formal wording is blunt force trauma to the head, but I can tell you the level of force required is severe. The largest wound was several injuries, so the blows have to be more than nine in number. By the time you have several blows onto an area that is already fractured, you can no longer distinguish one from the next. Inside the skull is in multiple small pieces, and many of those fragments are driven inwards.' Asked by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC how many she thought there were, she said: 'I would say at least four at that site. Ms Heer asked: 'Strikes with what? 'A hammer,' Dr Cook replied. 'When a hammer strikes the head, the shape of the laceration is curved if the force is hard enough and sometimes if it is not used flat on, then one part of the hammer is going in. All the injuries can be accounted for with a hammer.' Mr Longworth was found to have an blood alcohol read of 114mg, above the drink drive limit of 80mg. Dr Cook made it clear that his alcohol level would not have impeded him though and that was clear due to the defence injuries to his hand. She said: 'The type of injuries on the right hand are what we call defence-type injuries. The hand comes up to the head to protect it and the hammer then strikes the hand, causing those injuries. He would not have been incapacitated through alcohol and those defence injuries show he was able to move his hand to protect himself. If he is a regular drinker, he may not have experienced any effects from a blood alcohol level of 114.' Mr Longworth's head was found with the upper set of dentures still in place. He was of a 'reasonably heaby build' and had a 41-inch waist, the pathologist said. He was found to have chronic liver disease, known as cirrhosis, but the exact cause of that could not be confirmed by the pathologist. After he died, Mr Longworth's body was cut up by Mosquera, using a combination of a knife and a power tool, it was said. He was cut across his thyroid cartilage, which in men is the Adam's apple. Dr Cook said: 'That was cut through and then next to that you have your carotid artery, that was cut through. 'Then at the back of the neck you have seven spine bones and the cut went between the fifth and the sixth spine bones in the neck.' Bones in the right arm of Mr Longworth appear to have been snapped rather than cut according to Dr Cook. 'Some sort of tool must have been used but it did not leave any distinctive marks on those left arm bones,' she said. Ms Heer asked: 'What about the right? 'They just appeared snapped so not showing anything that could be linked to a tool,' Dr Cook replied. 'Just at the end of the right radius a tool has been used to start the cutting.' Ms Heer asked: 'So perhaps an attempt to use the tool and then snapping? 'Yes,' she replied. 'The use of the tool must have come before the snapping but I don't think I can say much more than that.' Mr Longworth's leg had been completely 'disarticulated' and appears to have been cut off with a knife and tool. Dr Cook said: 'The skin line at the top of the left was very ragged, it was not one swift movement of a knife, it was several, I can't say how many, but several movements of the knife.' Ms Heer asked: 'What about the bone? 'There was a tool mark cut on the bone,' Dr Cook replied. Mosquera denies the murder of retired handyman Mr Longworth and Mr Alfonso, a swimming instructor. He has admitted the manslaughter of Mr Alfonso.
Sunday World
12 hours ago
- Sunday World
Colombian Navy seizes unmanned ‘narco sub' equipped with Starlink antenna
Officials say that while there were no drugs on board, the vessel was designed to carry up to 1.5 tons of cocaine and travel a distance of about 1,200km The Colombian Navy has announced the first ever seizure of an unmanned "narco sub" equipped with a Starlink antenna off the Caribbean coast. The empty semisubmersible was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources believe it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel. "It was being tested and was empty," a naval spokeswoman confirmed to AFP. Officials say that while there were no drugs on board, the vessel was designed to carry up to 1.5 tons of cocaine and travel a distance of about 1,200km. While manned semisubmersibles built in secret jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine from Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico, this marks the first known discovery of an autonomous narco-submarine in South American waters. The narco-sub surrounded by navy vessels Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 4th The Colombian navy said the drone semisubmersible was owned by the Gulf Clan, the country's largest drug trafficking group and one of several cartels recently designated as foreign terrorist groups by the United States. According to the US State Department, the group's "primary source of income is from cocaine trafficking, which it uses to fund its paramilitary activities'. The submarine had two antennas including one protected with fiberglass that was connected to a Starlink satellite modem for communication. It was also equipped with two surveillance cameras, one for navigating the vessel and the other for monitoring its engine. Naval officials said the unmanned semi-submersible that was built in Colombia travels close to the water's surface, making it hard to detect, with only the air inlets and antenna visible above the waterline. Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo, Chief of the Colombian Navy, told a press conference that traffickers are moving toward more advanced and unmanned smuggling systems. He added that the use of such technology shows a shift in drug trafficking strategies toward more innovative and adaptive methods. However, this is not the first time a Starlink antenna has been used at sea by suspected drug traffickers. In November, Indian police seized a giant consignment of meth worth $4.25 billion in a vessel steered remotely by Starlink near the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands. Juana Cabezas, a researcher at Colombia's Institute for Development and Peace Studies, told AFP that powerful Mexican drug cartels, who operate in Colombia, "hired technology experts and engineers to develop an unmanned submarine" as far back as 2017. "Removing the crew eliminates the risk of captured operators cooperating with authorities," Henry Shuldiner, an investigator for the US-based InSight Crime think tank, stated. Shuldiner also highlighted the challenge of assembling crews to sail makeshift subs described as floating "coffins." In 2023, a "narco sub" with two dead bodies and nearly three tons of cocaine aboard was seized off the coast of Colombia. A near record number of the low-profile vessels were intercepted in the Atlantic and Pacific in 2024, according to the report. Other unmanned vessels have also been detected in the Mediterranean, often used for short coastal trips between countries like Albania, Italy, Morocco, and Spain. In another case in November 2024, a semi-submersible loaded with five tons of Colombian cocaine was seized en route to Australia. Colombian law punishes the use, construction, marketing, possession and transportation of semisubmersibles with penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Though commonly spotted off the coast of Colombia, narco subs have been intercepted across the globe in recent months. Just last week, the Mexican navy seized 3.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a semisubmersible vessel off the Pacific coast, while releasing video of the "narco sub" being intercepted. In March, Portuguese police said forces had confiscated nearly 6.5 tons of cocaine from a semisubmersible vessel off the remote Azores archipelago that was bound for the Iberian peninsula. In January, a suspected narco sub broke in two pieces as a fishing boat was towing it to a port in northwest Spain. According to the UN drug agency, cocaine production, seizures, and use all hit record highs in 2023. Colombia, the world's largest cocaine producer, has seen a sharp rise in production due to increased global demand. Colombian law punishes the use, construction, marketing, possession, and transport of semi-submersibles with sentences of up to 14 years in prison.
The Journal
17 hours ago
- The Journal
Revealed: How Hezbollah fundraisers helped finance the €157m MV Matthew drug operation
THE KINAHAN CRIME group and international drug criminals partnered up with Iranian fundraisers for Hezbollah and paid €5 million up front for the cocaine that was to be shipped to Ireland on board the MV Matthew, The Journal has learned. The money was handed over to a South American drug cartel and an agreement was made that the estimated €152 million in profit from distributing the drug would be split between the various entities who put the cash up. Irish authorities – including the specialist forces of the Army Ranger Wing – intercepted the cargo ship off the Waterford coast and staged a dramatic raid in September 2023. To date, the shipment – worth around €157 million in total – is the biggest drug seizure in the history of the Irish state. Eight men found guilty of playing a part in the operation were sentenced today at the Special Criminal Court, they were sentenced to between 13 to 20 years in jail . The LÉ William Butler Yeats escorts the MV Matthew to Cork on 26 September 2023. David Creedon / Alamy Live News David Creedon / Alamy Live News / Alamy Live News The Hezbollah link The ship – originally registered to a legitimate Dubai-owned company – was purchased, in complicated steps, by intermediaries and ultimately placed in the control of the drug traffickers. The front company set up by the traffickers was 'Matthew Maritime Inc' which even had its own website, where the firm touted its experience in shipping and referred to its 'expert team'. The address for the company was on Ajeltake Island in the pacific archipelago of the Marshall Islands. It was all, of course, a ruse. The Matthew had been bought, not for the purposes of setting up a single-ship bulk carrier business, but to ferry drugs across the Atlantic to Ireland. The ship collected the drugs off Venezuela, using a method to trick ship-tracking tech known as 'spoofing' – essentially, manipulating data to give the impression the ship is in a false location. The bulk carrier departed from Curacao, off the Venezuelan coast, and sailed across the Atlantic before arriving in Irish territorial waters. She was sailing under the flag of Panama – a common practice in the world of international shipping as it's (quite literally) a flag of convenience. The plan was to meet up with a trawler, the Castlemore, which had been purchased with the aim of ferrying the 2.25 tonnes of drugs ashore for distribution in Ireland and across Europe – a smuggling method known as 'coopering'. The Castlemore was to be sailed out of Castletownbere – a port town some 125 km south-west of Cork city on the Beara Peninsula – to meet up with the smuggling 'mothership'. Sources we spoke to ahead of today's sentencing said Venezuelan-based Hezbollah operatives were key to the MV Matthew operation. Investigators have assessed that the smuggling operation was ultimately managed from Dubai by the Kinahan Cartel. The gardaí and their international intelligence partners have identified a key part of the operation by Iranian operatives, based in Venezuela and Iran as well as other locations who were working behind the scenes. This was further backed up by the numbers in chat groups used by the smugglers. In return for part funding the operation they would receive money that would be directed back to the Hezbollah group. This gave the Iranians some distance from the money trail, is one of the theories being explored by investigators. It was in the South American phase of the operation where the connections to Iran and Hezbollah were of most benefit. Venezuela and its regime have close connections to Iran and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group which places itself as an alternative to the government in Beirut and has been involved in a recent war with Israel. It's likely the criminals raising funds for Hezbollah came on the radar of the group behind the MV Matthew operation after the Kinahan OCG had developed connections to other drug traffickers with links to Iran. Whatsapp and Signal groups The operation was managed on Whatsapp and Signal. When gardaí examined those messaging groups they determined that the main criminal commander was in the Emirates but that there were also participants in Germany, Turkey, Iran, Britain, the Netherlands and Spain. Sources we spoke to said that the Matthew was in poor condition – its accommodation in a dishevelled state and much of the machinery in a state of disrepair. The drugs gang deployed a retired Ukrainian fishing boat captain – Vitalyi Lapa, one of the eight men sentenced earlier today – to Ireland in July of 2023 and he stayed in various hotels in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. Advertisement His job would be to operate as the expert mariner on a fishing boat that would be bought from unsuspecting fishers somewhere in Ireland. It is believed he was to be joined by an Irish gangster but that that plan fell through and he was joined instead by British man Jamie Harbron. Harbron – who was also sentenced today after entering a guilty plea in the trial last December – pitched himself in Garda interviews as an unwilling vulnerable drug user who was dispatched to Ireland to pay off a debt he owed to criminals. Sources have said that the reality of intelligence gardaí have gathered is that he was a much more willing participant and further up the food chain. In court it was said that his apparent job, arriving by ferry the day before he and several others headed to west Cork to buy the trawler, was to act as a deckhand on the trawler while Lapa, the Ukrainian, would be its pilot. The crew of the MV Matthew on deck passing Cobh flanked by the Army Ranger Wing. Alamy. Alamy. Habron and Lapa met up and headed south to purchase the trawler with two gang members from Newry and a third man. He is a Scottish national who was a senior Kinahan operator who flew in, with the money, from Dubai. The two people from Newry and the man from Scotland remain at large. As they moved towards Castletownbere they could not have known that an elite team from the Garda National Surveillance Unit was following close behind. 'Spare parts' The crew of the Matthew were told the drugs on board were 'spare parts' – but they told gardaí in interviews, after their arrest, that the men who came to load the cargo at sea off Venezuela were heavily armed. To quell their suspicions the Iranian captain Soheil Jelveh (51) offered them a bonus to keep quiet. Jelveh would claim to gardaí that Cumali Ozgen, a Dutch national with connections to Iran, was running the operation. Regardless, both men have now been sentenced and face spells in Irish prisons. In court it was said that Ozgen was a cleaner, but he was in accommodation on the Matthew that is known as the pilot's cabin – the equivalent of a VIP room and right next to the bridge. Gardaí believe that he was the man onboard to monitor proceedings. In court, his defence team admitted he was there to be the 'eyes and ears' of those directing the operation from Dubai, and had no seafaring experience. He took the job, the court was told, in a 'misguided attempt' to provide for his family. Tracking the operation Key to the whole operation was the information that tipped the Irish off to what was going on. This came from analysts at the EU- and UK-funded MAOC-N agency in Portugal along with other high level intelligence sharing. That intelligence is a mix of profiling ships, monitoring communications and high level sharing of data between agencies across the globe with Irish partners. Gardaí from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, led by Detective Superintendent Keith Halley, began the endgame operation armed with the European agency's intelligence. It was thought first that the drugs would be landed on the east coast near Wicklow and Wexford and the guards deployed specialist units there near Kilmore Quay. What followed was a far more dramatic operation as the ship was stormed and brought to harbour in Cork. Those on board the MV Matthew knew the game was up long before the first boots of the Army Ranger Wing landed on their deck. The Castlemore ran aground off Wexford, en route to Castletownbere, and Habron and Lapa had to be winched to safety. Panicked messages appeared in the Signal and Whatsapp groups. Those messaging began to contemplate putting the drugs in a lifeboat and sailing it to Ireland. They also thought about getting criminals in Dublin to come out and meet them. A long-back-and forth between Irish authorities and the ship's radio then ensued before the order was ultimately given to raid the vessel, following a sign-off from then-Tánaiste and Defence Minister Micheál Martin. The crew of the Matthew sentenced today were relative bit players - just pawns in a much bigger global level enterprise of terror group fundraising and drug cartels. They were Iranian Saied Hassani (39), Filipino Harold Estoesta (31), Ukrainian Mykhailo Gavryk (32), Ukrainian Vitalit Vlasoi (32), Iranian ship's captain Soheil Jelveh (51) and Dutchman Cumali Ozgen (49) Other crew members on board, deemed to have no involvement with the smuggling operation, were not prosecuted. Sources have said that gardaí and other law enforcement agencies are not finished – they still must arrest the other organisers, including those aligned to the Kinahan OCG. Routes have diversified but sources said that Dutch and Iranian gangsters are now running the shipments across the Atlantic either towards Rotterdam, the Irish and Cornwall coast or to Cape Verde and Senegal. As one Irish security source put it: 'We need another few Matthews and that might help to stop it.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
