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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Semi-submersible drug subs

Hello Frank, Juergen,

The idea that "this will not help us" and "what can we do to differentiate" is late already. The interdiction act is US law now - and i would claim some credit for the fact that submersibles in private hands were NOT declared illegal altogehter and the mere fact to own a submarine yacht will NOT get you 15 years of jail - on contrary there is some DIFFERENTIATION in the laws.

In the last years i had a hard time to explain to colombian (and US) authorities why i do build a oceangoing submarine yacht - and why there are plenty of good reasons to do so that have nothing to do with this infortunate issue.

In fact the laws where passed with a certain awareness that there are civil private oceangoing submarine yachts and there is a focus how interdiction can differentiate them from smuggle intents.

In a nutshell there is focus on "camouflage intention" so be careful that your sub yacht does not look like a military sub - yellow / white paint. Heat signiture keep the exhaust hot, radar visibility keep the snorkel long and reflective.
A flag - don´t loose it during passage. Registration (not to mix up with classification) - get a hull building number, get a boat registration number. Also keep the submerged operation range limited, keep your motor signiture loud, make sure that it gets registered properly so you can be identified easy by sound.

Make sure that you can hear and see a "intercepting helicopter" in shitty weather conditions. Do not loose your boat - if you get fished out of open ocean by a navy/coastguard patrol after your submarine yacht sank  you might be in trouble and processd in absence of other evidence as a smuggler. Make sure that you have documentation at home that can serve as a prove of contrary.


Cheers
Wil












2009/4/28, Juergen Guerrero Kommritz <groplias2@yahoo.com>:
Hello Frank
Combating the drug smuggle is very dificult and costly.  The location of the plantations is known there are nice satelite image software that can discriminate the clorophil wave length of the coca plants.  The problem is to get there and destroy the plants without being killed. The cocain cartels are well armed and have a very good inteligence force.
a military solution is not a very good option, then look at Afganistan since it is ocupaid by the UN forces and Eureopean and US forces the production of Opium has skyrocket.
The best will be to combat the consume of the stuff, but that is not popular in the consuming contries. It is a complex problem.
As far as I know the most important ingenner that designed the drug boats was arrested last year, may be that will bring some diferences.
I hope there will be no problems with psubs in the future, smal planes are also used to smuggle almost everything and they are still aloud.
Best wsihes
Jürgne

--- ShellyDalg@aol.com <ShellyDalg@aol.com> schrieb am Sa, 25.4.2009:
Von: ShellyDalg@aol.com <ShellyDalg@aol.com>
Betreff: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Semi-submersible drug subs
An: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Datum: Samstag, 25. April 2009, 19:17

Interesting article. This whole "drug boat " thing is not going to help us as home-built psubbers. I sympathize with the coast guard who are responsible for catching these things. It seems like a better approach would be to stop the growing of the plants before the drugs can be made. It must take a lot of plants to make several tons of cocaine, and with the satellite technology available, could the military find the fields?
As for us, as home builders of recreational subs, what can we do to make ourselves a "non-threat".
I think that being open and visible through the psub site helps, but laws and restrictions are bound to be developed that could curb our sport unless we adopt some sort of system that makes us easy to judge as "safe" hobbyists. Anybody got any ideas? Frank D.

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