This handout picture released by the Colombian National Navy shows Navy members intercepting and arresting a 15 meters long semi-submersible carrying 2,643 kilograms cocaine hydrochloride in the pacific coast of Colombia on 13 March 2023. Photo: AFP Photo / Colombian National Navy
Drug cartels are targeting the Pacific, using semi-submersibles to smuggle vast amounts of product through the region, according to a transnational organised crime expert.
Narco-subs that escape radar detection are being used to move narcotics through the Pacific Islands to Australia and New Zealand, Jose Sousa-Santos, head of the Pacific Regional Security Hub at Canterbury University, told Pacific Waves.
Sousa-Santos said the wrecks of semi-submersibles, or low profile vessels (LPVs), found in Tonga and the Solomon Islands this month prove that cartels are operating in the region
"[Those discoveries] definitely show a new trend being used by trans-criminal syndicates in South America and Mexico, to traffic drugs to Australia and New Zealand, the "cash cows" in the region," he said.
Sousa-Santos believes cartels are honing in on Pacific Island countries as transit or refuelling points and island hopping because they know police in the region are on the back foot.
"There are choke points - we see movement between Tonga and French Polynesia, Samoa and the wider Pacific, Fiji and the Solomon Islands, PNG and Australia, which we need to patrol more effectively."
He said the lack of a coastguard network in the region left Pacific Island countries vulnerable.
"These vessels operate through the Pacific Islands or from island to island from a drop-off mothership to say for example the Solomon Islands.
"Then an LPV is used to move to another island country to refuel, before moving towards the target markets of Australia and New Zealand.
This makes detection by law enforcement and defence officials hard because we haven't needed to technology to counter these tactics until now.
José Souza-Santos Photo: Supplied
"Unlike our partners in the US, Colombia or Mexico, this phenomenon (narco-subs) is new to the region."
"Law enforcement agencies in the Pacific have only just begun to work together to uptick their skill sets and make an impact on drug smuggling routes in the region," he said.
"By adding this wild card to the tactics, the region is being forced to rethink its strategy."
Choke points needed to be effectively patrolled, so there was a maritime presence to put the pressure on this alliance of trafficking, he said
"By sharing real time intelligence between naval activities this would definitely have an impact on the movement of drugs, especially through maritime means".
He said there was a need to upskill law enforcement and the navy, particularly in the Pacific, so officials could understand the threat posed.
The evolving tactics used by drug syndicates highlighted the urgent need for effective maritime security cooperation in the region, he said.
"What is emerging now are submarine drones and narco torpedoes, which fire in a straight trajectory to a landing point, like a deserted beach, where the drugs are picked up."
He said narco-subs are cheap to build and could easily be made in the Pacific.
"Older-models might cost between $150,000 to $200,000, a lot of them are built in mangroves that act as make-shift factories, in South America" he said.
Sousa-Santos added that while Australia and NZ have been proactive about maritime drug smuggling, the Pacific should not be used as a buffer zone.
"By that I mean the Pacific is used as a barrier to stop drugs from moving towards Australia and New Zealand. Operations are being stopped in the Pacific, not before they reach the region, and that's why we have to rethink our strategies."
"New Zealand is deporting criminals who have served time directly to the Pacific, they don't speak the language, they don't have connections, they've got no hope of employment."
"When they get to say Tonga or Samoa or Fiji, sometimes they reach back to their former criminal connections in Australia and NZ and this has had a a very serious negative impact on the Pacific," he said.
Part of being a good neighbour is to ensure that as we are part of the harm cycle, we minimise the impact on Pacific Island countries.
Sousa-Santos said one of the solutions was to retrofit patrol boats in the Pacific with thermal imaging cameras that pick up on the exhaust pipes on narco-subs.
"You may not be able to see the vessel via radar but the exhaust pipes have a heat signature," he said.
