In September of 2000, the Colombian police investigated a narcotics traffic group who wanted to build in Bogota (2600m altitude) a submarine which would be able to contain about two hundred tons of drugs to be sold in other countries. Policemen discovered inside a hangar in the suburbs of the city a machine in three parts, to be assembled in the port of Buenaventura, in the Colombian Pacific coast. No one was arrested and no "witnesses" or the ringleader were identified.

After the raid, the Colombian police asked the American, Russian and the French embassies to help them with the inquiry because there were indications that this was an international crime operation.

The submarine looked as if it was made by foreigners so much so that the Russian officer repeatedly said of it: "this is the technology of my country".

Now, the case is closed and the scandal pardoned. Nobody talks about it any more and it is no longer in the news. There are no images of the submarine. It could have been a "real" machine but it was only an unfinished project inspired by the Russian technology, it wasn't "real". We have the unfinished submarine and these plans.

Zbigniew Libera
(with Darek Foks, writer)