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First Trans-Atlantic Narco Submarine Found In Africa

A narco submarine has washed up on Black Johnson beach of Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. As well as being the country's first discovery, it is significant in other ways.

The "submarine" is actually a low-profiler vessel. Unlike the others so far discovered after a transatlantic voyage, this example has outboard motors ("LPV-OM" in my taxonomy). This now proves that that vessels with outboard motors can make the voyage.

It has long been suspected that so-called narco submarines are used to transport cocaine across the Atlantic to the West African coast. Possibly the drugs are then transhipped to other vessels, or travel via other means to their eventual markets in Europe. And that some routes to Europe go very close top the West African coast, in particular the Cape Verde Islands. Exactly which of these scenarios is true in this case is not yet clear, but it is worth noting that the vessel's outboard motors were missing. This is not unusual for these vessels after they have completed their voyage. (And it is possible that they were salvaged by locals unconnected to the smuggling).

The case is being linked to fugitive drug lord Johannes Leijdekkers (aka Bolle Jos) who has been seen in the country. At this stage it appears that the link may be speculative.

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