Spanish police have seized a drug suburb being built on the south coast

MADRID – Spanish police announced on Friday that they had seized a domestic narco-submarine that could carry up to 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of cargo.

Police came across a 9-meter (30-foot) craft last month while it was being built in Malaga, in the south. SpainCosta del Sol, during a wider international drug operation in which five other countries and the European Union’s criminal agency Europol took part.

The 3-meter-wide (10-foot) semi-submersible aircraft is made of fiberglass and plywood attached to a structural frame, has three screens on one side and is painted in light blue. It has two 200-horsepower engines running from the inside.

Rafael Perez, the head of the Spanish police, said that the ship never sailed.

“We think we should have gone to sea to meet the mother ship (which would) take the drug,” probably cocaine, before returning to Spain, Perez told reporters.

“It’s like an iceberg,” he said of the vessel’s structure. “In practice, almost everything goes underwater except the top, which is the only part that would be seen from another ship or helicopter.”

Similar similar drug smuggling vessels have been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in the past, especially near Central and South America. They sit low in the water to avoid detection and are rarely able to submerge completely.

A wider police operation against the alleged international smuggling chain networked hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, hashish and marijuana in various places in Spain, during which 52 people were arrested.

Spanish police said in a statement that police in Colombia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Portugal were also involved in the operation.