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Americas|The Submarines That Smuggle Cocaine Across Oceans and Seas
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/world/americas/drug-smuggling-submarines.html
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A display of confiscated vessels at a naval base in Ecuador offers a peek at why drug smuggling is so hard to stop.
Oct. 22, 2025
The commander of Ecuador’s coast guard gazed at the submarine that had been used to carry drugs with a defeated look in his eyes, exhausted from endless interdiction efforts that seem to go nowhere, his sailors risking their lives while the cocaine keeps flowing.
Drug smugglers, he said, were always many steps ahead.
The Ecuadorean Navy has two submarines in its fleet. And the cartels? No one really knows, but definitely many more.
Over the past 15 years, Ecuador has captured about a dozen fully and semi-submersible vessels. The American authorities say they believe just a tiny fraction of such vessels have been intercepted worldwide.
We were in the sprawling naval base along waterfront of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most populous city, looking at drug-trafficking ships seized by the navy, some with the help of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It was a graveyard of sun-baked fishing boats, semi-submersible vessels and one hulking metal submarine.
The array of vessels was a testament to the savviness of the cartels as they come up with ways to transport drugs around the world.
The U.S. military last week attacked a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean that it claimed was ferrying cocaine. Two people were killed, but there were two survivors, including an Ecuadorean man who was repatriated.
