Cocaine traffickers sink to new depths

Colombian police found a submarine, capable of smuggling up to 200 tons of cocaine, hidden high in the Andes on the day Interpol said world consumption of the drug had doubled in the past five years.

Colombian police found a submarine, capable of smuggling up to 200 tons of cocaine, hidden high in the Andes on the day Interpol said world consumption of the drug had doubled in the past five years.

The partly-built vessel was found in a warehouse 20 miles from the capital, Bogota. Officials said Russian documents were also found.

Although two-man submarines have been used recently to take cocaine shipments up the Pacific coast, the size and complexity of the 100-foot vessel dumbfounded investigators. Leo Arreguin, of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said: "In 32 years I've never seen anything like this ... we're talking about being able to load up to 200 tons of cocaine in this submarine."

US intelligence recently detected an alliance of Russian military figures, crime bosses, diplomats and revolutionaries that has been moving cocaine to the former Soviet Union in return for weaponry.

No arrests have been made. The authorities said two Americans may be linked with the Russian arms traders.