Homemade submarine seized in Costa Rica

[FVZA_Colonel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061120/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/costa_rica_homemade_submarine



Homemade submarine seized in Costa Rica
By MARIANELA JIMENEZ

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast.

Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just six feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday.

The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula.

"This is the first time in the country's history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts," Berrocal said in a statement.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Too bad no photo

that is funny at a certain level

[Ediacara]

8. I agree

Congratulations to the Costa Rican Coast Guard, but I'll admit, the story made me giggle.

[KamaAina]

2. What color was it?

Was it yellow, by any chance? :P

[KansDem]

3. Popular Mechanics ran a feature back in the 1960s...

Plans on building a one-man submarine. I remember reading the article, and looking at the plans and photos. Didn't sound quite as sophisticated as the one describe in this thread. I thought it was pretty neat, but then I was only 12 or so at the time.

[mike_c]

4. 100 miles off shore?!

Wow!

[NOLADEM]

5. They find these things under construction periodically

You have to figure some actually get here....They have to be immensely expensive to build and very hard to hide, and I guess you have to kill everyone who works on it before you begin using it.

Stupid to design it where it runs only six feet down. A simple $800 active array radar tuned correctly will see stuff just below the surface. But, then again, they were probably high.

We use our radar on our fishing boat to see slightly submerged hazards when we are running offshore at night or in the fog. We have seen shipping/18 wheeler containers 20-30 miles away with a consumer radar. You drive by it at 1 knot and see below the surface this 18 wheeler trailer just bobbing six feet down.

I would hazard a guess that our gubment has better shit than I do on my boat and might easily see this. Seems you would need to get this down a little further, maybe 20 feet or so before most surface signature would be lost to common radar.

Seems there would be an easier way to do this without the submarine.

[CabalPowered]

12. Anyone remember the Columbian sub that was being built underground

and they had built the tunnel already to the ocean? It was only a couple years ago. These guys will spare no expense to setup a new route.

[BrokenBeyondRepair]

6. CIA h8s competition..

[Kolesar]

9. Remember the stories of selling cocaine in Los Angeles to fund Reagan's Contras (terrorists)?

A perfect slush fund. The public probably paid for the gas for their transport jets.

[BrokenBeyondRepair]

10. Drugs are BIG business..

note the increase in Afghanistan heroin following the invasion.. hmmmmm

or this:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0607/S00151.htm

Mena Ark. is a very interesting place as well..

"war on drugs" needs to be renamed to "war on the competition"

[Lexingtonian]

7. now we know

the Freepers' funding and escape plans, and secret Keyboard Kommando vehicle.... Full of white powder, too! :-)

[uppityperson]

11. 3 tons? That seems like a fair bit for a machine like this.

[pinniped]

13. Did it look like this?