Colombia arrests leaders of submarine cocaine ring

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombian authorities have  captured two leaders of a 20-ton-per-year cocaine operation  that sent drug-laden submarines to the world’s top drug  consumer, the United States, local police said today.
Colombia, the world’s No. 1 cocaine producer, has been  wracked for decades by violence that made large swaths of the  Andean nation off limits as drug gangs, leftist rebels and  right-wing paramilitaries fought for control of a business  measured in billions of dollars.
“As a result of an investigation of more than 6 years, the  national police … captured two of those responsible for  sending cocaine to North America using self-propelled,  semi-submersible vessels, with (shipments) averaging 20 tons of  drugs annually,” the police said in a statement.
Colombia, where drug traffickers take advantage of dense  jungles and forests and a weak state presence in some areas,  has received billions of dollars in aid from Washington to  fight cocaine output, leftist rebels and cartels.
Colombia’s new criminal gangs — made up of a kaleidoscope  of former paramilitary commanders, ex-cartel members and others  — ship tons of cocaine monthly through Central America and  Mexico to the United States and to a lesser extent to Europe.