[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 22, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H2534-H2535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTELS USING SUBMARINES TO BRING COCAINE INTO THE 
                             UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the House's attention a new 
innovative idea to import drugs into the United States. The drug 
cartels in South America, specifically in Colombia, continue to figure 
out ways to import cocaine at a profit into our country. Now they are 
doing it by sea, and they are using submarines that they make in the 
jungles where they make the cocaine that they bring into the United 
States.
  I have here, Mr. Speaker, a photograph of a submarine. This 
photograph was taken by the United States Coast Guard as they were on 
patrol off the coast of Colombia with the United States Navy. This 
submarine is made out of fiberglass. It is about 100 feet long and it 
carries approximately $300 million worth of cocaine. It has a crew of 
five.
  It is made in such a way that when intercepted by the United States 
Navy or the United States Coast Guard, they are able to pull certain 
levers and valves on this submarine and it is junked in the Gulf of 
Mexico or off the coast of Colombia. They scuttle these ships, because 
what happens is when they scuttle them, the five man crew jumps off the 
boat into a lifeboat, and then our United States Navy has to rescue 
them and save them, but they can't prosecute them for importation of 
drugs into the United States.
  These submarines cost the drug cartels about $1 million apiece to 
manufacture. Intelligence sources tell us

[[Page H2535]]

that the drug cartels will bring in approximately 90 more loads of 
drugs into the United States from Colombia using these submarines the 
rest of this calendar year.
  They are made in such a way that they are highly mobile. They go 
about 14 knots apiece, and they are able to go all the way from 
Colombia into the United States without refueling. It is a constant 
problem for our Navy and our United States Coast Guard to track these 
individuals and to catch them with the cocaine.
  Only one situation where we, I say we, the United States Navy and the 
Coast Guard, were able to capture one of these vessels before it was 
scuttled and prosecute the crew was when they tried to sink it off the 
coast of Colombia after seeing the United States Navy. But what 
happened was after they scuttled the submarine, a load of cocaine, a 
bundle of cocaine, if you will, came to the surface. Once it came to 
the surface it was confiscated by our Navy. The five member crew was 
captured and they have been taken to Tampa, Florida, and they are on 
trial for importation of narcotics into the United States.
  I bring this to the House's attention, Mr. Speaker, because of the 
fact that Congress needs to deal with this issue. These submarines 
carry no flag. They are not registered to any nation or foreign 
government. The crew members come from all over the world, mostly from 
Colombia. They claim no citizenship from any nation. And they don't 
claim, of course, possession of the vessel.
  So Congress can deal with this issue by making it a Federal offense 
to use a submarine within international waters that carries no flag, 
carries no registration of another nation, and if a person is caught 
operating one of these vessels, they could be prosecuted as if they had 
drugs. The drug cartels are smart. They know if they can destroy the 
evidence they can't be prosecuted. We need to make a law that being in 
possession of this submarine is enough to prosecute them for crimes on 
the high seas.
  Mr. Speaker, I might add that these vessels are so manufactured that 
they are not just able to carry cocaine into the United States worth 
$300 million, or 12 tons, that is how much cocaine, but that same 
vessel can go into any of our ports in the United States as a submarine 
carrying weapons, explosives, weapons of mass destruction, and used as 
some type of suicide submarine, similar to what was used against the 
USS Cole some years ago in the Middle East.
  So the United States Coast Guard and Navy is to be complimented for 
tracking these vessels and doing everything they can to interdict the 
individuals that bring that cancer into the United States, and Congress 
needs to deal with the issue, to have these submarines that are 
basically at war with the United States bringing in these narcotics, 
have it be a crime to be in possession as a crew member of one of these 
vessels. It is things like this where we have to keep constant 
diligence in fighting the war on drugs.
  Just to be clear, Mr. Speaker, intelligence tells us that these 
submarines are made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or 
FARC. That is the military wing of the Colombian communist party. Of 
course, that is how they finance their revolution and the revolutionary 
ideas in South America.
  And that's just the way it is.

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