Dateline‘s report tonight from Channel 4 meets the gangs utilizing submarines to smuggle cocaine into Europe.

Drug seizures throughout Spain are on the rise as customs officers wrestle to search out these close to invisible targets.

Utilizing submarines to smuggle medication throughout the Atlantic was as soon as considered a fantasy.

However in 2019, when the Spanish authorities captured a ‘submarine’ off the coast of Galicia carrying 3,000kg of cocaine, it marked a turning level, confirming that an underwater drug trafficking route from South America to Europe was actual. The primary recognized ‘narco-sub’ seized in Europe is now displayed in Spain’s police academy.

The 22-metre semi-submersible was piloted by Agustin Alvarez, a former Spanish newbie boxing champion. Two different crew members have been his cousins from Ecuador. The three males have been sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2022.

Years later, the scent of cigarette smoke and human faeces nonetheless lingers inside. The voyage from Brazil to the coast of Galicia took 28 days. The crew would take 8-hour turns to steer the vessel. The cargo, price greater than €90 million ($146 million) on the time, was saved on the entrance.

The ‘sub’ — most of it sat just under the water, making it very onerous to detect — was designed for one-time use on this unlawful mission. The plan was that after the medication arrived and have been unloaded onto fishing boats, the crew would open particular valves to sink the vessel.

9:30pm Tuesday on SBS.