Tons of cocaine are moved from Colombia in fast boats, submersibles and semi-submersibles. The world’s largest producer of this drug, to global markets, through routes through the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, where the United States has already bombed 15 vessels and claimed more than 60 lives with the argument of combating drug trafficking.
This new conflict against drugs in “international waters” exacerbated Washington’s diplomatic tensions with Bogotá and Caracas in recent months. Likewise, the UN accused Donald Trump’s Administration of “violating international law” and committing “extrajudicial executions.”
The US offensive began in September in the Caribbean, near the coast of Venezuela, but was later extended to the Pacific, which, according to experts consulted by EFE, has established itself as one of the main exit routes for cocaine produced not only in Colombia, but also in Peru and Bolivia.
The Pacific route
While in the 1980s and 1990s drugs used to leave the Caribbean. Today, approximately 80% of the cocaine that leaves Colombia does so through the Pacific, estimates Manuel Camilo González, professor of International Relations at the Javeriana University of Bogotá, in an interview with EFE.
“In the last five years, the Pacific has consolidated itself as one of the main exit routes for cocaine produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia,” reaffirms a report published last June by the International Center for Research and Analysis against Maritime Drug Trafficking (CIMCON) of the Colombian Navy.
According to that report, seizures of cocaine stashes in the Pacific totaled around 1,500 tons between 2020 and 2024. The largest seizures were made by the authorities of Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia and Panama, in that order.
Boats and submersibles
To transport drugs by sea, Drug traffickers use boats, speed boats, semi-submersibles and submersibles.
The first information about the use of semisubmersibles in illicit activities dates back to May 1993, when the Colombian Navy seized one of these devices on the Caribbean Island of Providencia. Her name was ‘Laura’.
“The main means used from Colombia are ‘go fast’ boats” because of their speed and because they can carry several tons of cocaine inside, Sara García, a researcher at InSight Crime, an organized crime research center, explains to EFE.
Many of these fast boats are technically or structurally modified to give priority to loading, he details.
The CIMCOM report confirms that speedboats are the most used means of maritime transport of cocaine, in 44% of seizures in 2024, but highlights that “trafficking by commercial containers also plays a relevant role.”
“The decrease in seizures in LPV (low-profile vessel) semi-submersibles could indicate a change in trafficking methods, either due to their difficult detection or high production and operation costs,” the report adds.
Semi-submersibles and submersibles, García explains, are usually built in shipyards in the Colombian Pacific, although similar ships have also been found in other places in Colombia and even in other countries such as Guyana.
Technology allows these devices to sometimes be operated without a crew and, when manned, to transport up to four people, depending on their size.
In addition to speedboats and submersibles, drug traffickers also send shipments in high-board vessels, specialized vessels, fishing vessels, recreational vessels, and even official vessels, according to experts and another CIMCOM report, published in 2022.
Generally, these vessels are “contaminated” with drugs in the ports of departure or on the high seas.
Other drug transport strategies include so-called ‘parasites’, elements attached to the hulls of boats, through metal cylinder devices.
The most sophisticated ones have air chambers and valves with a compressor to inject water, submerge them and thus try to evade underwater inspections by the authorities.
González recalls that, in Colombia, the main groups linked to drug trafficking are the Clan del Golfo, the main criminal gang in the country, currently in peace talks with the government of Gustavo Petro; the Central General Staff and the Second Marquetalia, both dissidents of the demobilized FARC guerrilla.
However, García emphasizes that, unlike years ago, when the drug trafficking chain was managed by a cartel, now the criminal dynamics have changed and the figure of the ‘intermediary’ appears.
“The drug trafficking chain goes far beyond Colombia and now touches transit countries, it touches destination countries and at each moment of that chain there are different actors that participate,” he indicates, before adding that the ‘intermediary’ acts as “a business figure” that enables “business between different actors.”
