Spanish police seize homemade ‘narco-submarine’ capable of carrying up to two tonnes of drugs

Hundreds of kilos of cocaine and hashish were also seized by police

The vessel was discovered in a warehouse in Málaga last month while it was being built and police say it never sailed (AP)

Spanish police have seized a homemade ‘narco-submarine’ capable of carrying up to two tonnes of drugs.

The vessel was discovered in a warehouse in Málaga last month while it was being built and police say it never sailed.

Rafael Pérez, the head of the Spanish police, told reporters that the vessel was likely to be “going to go to sea to meet a mother ship to take on board drugs,” before returning to Spain. 

“It is like an iceberg,” he said. “In practice, nearly all of it goes underwater apart from the top, which is the only part that would be seen from another ship or a helicopter.”

The nine-metre (29.5ft) vessel, which was made of fibreglass and plywood panels vessel and had been painted light blue, was seized as part of a wider operation involving Colombia, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Portugal and the European Union’s crime agency Europol.

Hundreds of kilos of cocaine and hashish were also seized by police across Spain and 52 people were arrested this week as part of the operation. A drugs lab was also dismantled. 

Similar vessels have been discovered in the past in the Pacific and Atlantic, especially off Central and South America. They are rarely able to submerge fully.

In 2019, the first narco-submarine was discovered in European waters. The National Crime Agency (NCA) worked with Spanish police and customs to intercept the 65-foot long semi-submersible submarine which was loaded with cocaine worth hundreds of millions of pounds on the UK market.