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A Colombian drug lord dubbed “the Prince of Semi-Submersibles” was sentenced to over 20 years in prison for operating a fleet of narco-submarines that smuggled thousands of kilos cocaine into the U.S. from South America, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Narco-submarines are makeshift nautical vehicles painted in ocean colors that have one purpose: to smuggle narcotics in hermetically sealed containers across thousands of miles of ocean to illicit ports of call in other countries. The technology has progressed in recent years and has become a significant force in the international drug trade.
Oscar Adriano Quintero Rengifo, 35, also known as “Guatala,” was sentenced to 20 years and 10 months in federal prison for smuggling cocaine in narco-subs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in court papers.
Quintero Rengifo was part of a transnational criminal organization that smuggled cocaine from South America to Central America for ultimate importation into the United States, according to a federal plea agreement. The organization primarily sent self-propelled semi-submersible vessels to Guatemala, where the cocaine was then smuggled over the Guatemala and Mexican borders, and then into the U.S., prosecutors said.
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A statement by federal prosecutors described Quintero Rengifo as “the Prince of Semi-Submersibles,” a term originally coined for him by media in Colombia. Quintero Rengifo rose through the ranks of a Colombian-Guatemalan drug organization to become an expert international smuggler.
“The organization primarily sent vessels such as self-propelled semi-submersible vessels to Guatemala, where the cocaine was then smuggled over the Guatemala/Mexican border and then into the United States,” court documents said. “A former mayor in Guatemala, who controlled drug routes in northern Guatemala into Mexico, oversaw the smuggling of cocaine to Mexican cartel members. Quintero Rengifo progressed within the group, from organizing smuggling operations, to ultimately investing in shipments and securing investors.”
From at least as early as January 2015 through September 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicted at least four vessels, including two semi-submersibles, directly linked to the defendant’s organization, and involving more than 13,000 kilograms of cocaine, prosecutors said.
Quintero Rengifo was arrested in Colombia at the request of the United States on January 29, 2021, and extradited to the United States on January 26, 2022. He pleaded guilty on May 20, 2022. He was sentenced to prison by U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell.
For years, narco submarines have been used by cartels to smuggle cocaine and other drugs, mainly from Colombia and Ecuador to Central America, Mexico and the United States. They allow Colombian gangs, in association with Mexican drug cartels, to move drugs fast and boost profits.
This case was investigated by the Panama Express Strike Force, a standing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) comprised of agents and analysts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force South.
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“In the last decade, the submersibles production has increased due to great interest by criminal organizations,” said Mario Pazmiño, former chief of intelligence at the Ecuador Army and a security analyst.
Since 2018, well over 100 narco-submarines have been seized, Colombian authorities said. On average, the vessels carry around 286,600 pounds of cocaine and 1,543 pounds of marijuana. Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador are the most used routes by drug traffickers.
Given narco-submarines carry merchandise worth millions of dollars, traffickers hire engineers to build them.
“They need special training on construction, ship design to be able to make them safe first,” Pazmiño said. “They have two important characteristics: Their profiled displacement on the coast makes them much less detectable due to their appearance,” and large volumes of drugs “can be loaded and transported quickly.”
Contributing: Karol Suárez, the Louisville Courier Journal
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