On Tuesday, Civil Guard police in the northwest of Spain refloated a homemade semi-submersible vessel they believe may have been used to transport cocaine.
On Monday, a kilometer (half a mile) off the coast in the Arousa estuary, a 16-meter (52-foot) fiberglass vessel was spotted sunken. To a nearby port, where police can examine its contents after towing it there.
When asked if they knew if it had been used to transport cocaine or where it came from, police said it was too soon to tell.
In 2019, another identical ship carrying 3 tons of cocaine was discovered in a northern Spanish estuary. While being constructed in Malaga, on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, police in 2021 seized a homemade narco-
semisubmersible with a cargo capacity of up to 2.2 tons.
Similar vessels used for smuggling drugs have been uncovered in the Atlantic Ocean, mostly near Central and South America. Not many Europeans use them. To avoid being spotted, the ships stay low in the water and can only occasionally go completely submerged.
