HomeNewsBriefPeru, Ecuador Police Divers Target Drugs Hidden on Ship Hulls
BRIEF

Peru, Ecuador Police Divers Target Drugs Hidden on Ship Hulls

COCAINE / 3 SEP 2019 BY CAT RAINSFORD EN

Peruvian police have busted a drug ring that used divers to attach cocaine shipments to the hulls of boats, an innovative and hard to detect smuggling technique that appears to be spreading across the continent.

Twelve people have been captured and face trial for their involvement in the ring, including two Peruvian naval officers. The network trafficked cocaine to Europe from the Peruvian ports of Pisco, south of the capital Lima, and Chimbote, on the country's northern coast. The group used divers to weld sealed packets of the drug into vents in the hulls of ships, America TV reported.

Up to 600 kilograms could be smuggled per ship, without the crew’s knowledge. The technique allowed the traffickers to evade port security checks, and the need to pay off dock workers to collaborate in stowing the drugs on board.

SEE ALSO: Peru News and Profiles

The ring was headed by Colombians, in collaboration with local Peruvian facilitators. A Colombian specialist known as “Fantasma," or "Ghost," was allegedly responsible for the underwater welding operations, according to America TV.

Similar tactics have been seen in Colombia since at least 2014. There, traffickers use a method known as “parásito” (parasite), in which drugs are sealed into metal cylinders that are welded directly onto the hulls of container vessels.

In June, police in Ecuador also warned that drug traffickers may be targeting the undersides of ships. The announcement followed the arrest of a man swimming through the waters of Guayaquil port, in southern Ecuador, dragging cases containing 138 kilograms of cocaine. He was intercepted 70 meters away from a ship preparing to set sail for Spain. Police believe he intended to hook the drugs to the hull, to be hauled on board by crew members once out at sea.

InSight Crime Analysis

Attaching drug shipments to the hulls of boats is a cunning tactic which makes the illicit substances nearly impossible to detect using standard inspection procedures. The proliferation of the technique raises concerns about how prepared the region's police forces are to combat it.

The frontline of defense comes from teams of police divers, specially trained to inspect the undersides of ships. This strategy has resulted in important seizures in Colombia, and has also allowed Peruvian police to intercept a shipment on route from Colombia to Chile.

But the teams work against almost impossible odds. Divers report poor visibility, and traffickers are finding ever more ingenious ways to conceal the subaquatic “parasites." In Colombia, tubes are sometimes painted to resemble part of the ship’s structure. The latest technique seen in Peru, in which criminals insert the drugs into vents, makes the consignments still less visible to divers.

SEE ALSO: Pacific Drug Routes From South America More Popular Than Atlantic

Diving teams also suffer from lack of resources. In Ecuador, anti-drug police employ only 30 divers across the country. Eight are stationed in Guayaquil, where they carry out an average of four weekly inspections, El Telégrafo reported. This represents only a tiny fraction of the ships that pass through the country’s busiest port.

This is particularly concerning given Ecuador’s increasing importance as a departure point for cocaine shipments. In 2018, Plan V reported that 39 tons of the drug had been seized over the previous two years in Guayaquil alone.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 29 JUL 2022

The case of a Honduran broker who laundered cartel money has shed light on the importance of US banks.

ECUADOR / 24 DEC 2021

Ecuador's descent into violence followed a common path: more cocaine led to more cash and more weapons for the gangs.

COLOMBIA / 28 JUL 2023

Three cases in recent weeks highlight how Colombian groups continue to dominate loansharking schemes across Central and South America…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…