The Colombian Navy has seized an unmanned submarine equipped with a "Starlink" satellite internet antenna, Navy Chief Juan Ricardo Rosso announced, quoted by DPA, BTA reported.
The submarine was in Colombian territorial waters off the coast of the Caribbean Sea, not far from the city of Santa Marta.
Rosso stressed that this is the first case in Colombia in which a semi-submersible vessel with fully autonomous unmanned control has been seized. According to him, the submarine is a special production because it is unmanned and has modern navigation and communication equipment.
The vessel had the capacity to travel up to 1,000 kilometers, as well as to transport over 1.5 tons of cocaine. It is believed to belong to the "Clan del Golfo" drug cartel.
The head of the Colombian Navy noted that this is one of a total of 10 semi-submersible vessels and drones confiscated, which shows a trend among criminal cartels towards the use of increasingly sophisticated unmanned technologies.
This complicates the efforts of the authorities in Colombia to prevent the trafficking of illegal substances and requires a serious technological upgrade of the security services, Rosso added.