In the 80s, it was small low-flying plane with secret landing strips that helped cocaine traffickers bring most of the drug into the country. As the years have progressed, so have the creativity of traffickers.

As radar technology improved, the Colombian cartels switched to superpowered ships that somebody let a kindergarten class name "go-fast boats." Every time the Feds get hip to the latest conveyance, the smugglers head back to the drawing board, making the boats smaller and less detectable, then semi-submersible, and finally developing full-on submarines from old torpedo shells in the middle of the South American jungle.

It's interesting. Like a Latin American Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, except with millions of dollars and people's lives hanging in the balance, narco-traffickers and the DEA have been locked in an ongoing chase scene, carried out in a parade of increasingly ludicrous homemade drug-smuggling vehicles

The people over at VBS.tv recently journeyed to Colombia to chat with the navy's drug squad and a former trafficker in an attempt to better understand the cat and mouse game of the narco trade, specifically the new technological advances on both sides.

In a special video feature called Motherboard, they get the inside scoop, and showcase some of these makeshift subs the cartels have been using. These are what the authorities have discovered today, so who knows what the cartels have up their sleeves next.

http://www.ballerstatus.com/2009/05/...new-narcosubs