Ecuador Seizes Major Narco-Sub

The Ecuadorean military has made a significant discovery in the fight against drug cartels, seizing a 35m-long 'narco-sub' hidden in a nature reserve near the country's border with Colombia. The semi-submersible had been carrying 6,000 gallons of fuel and was ready to embark on a long drug-smuggling voyage, according to Ecuador's ministry of defence.

The discovery came shortly after Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa announced a 'new phase' in his government's war on drug cartels. Ecuador has become a key country through which illicit drugs transit from South America to the US, Europe, and as far as Australia, due to its location between Colombia and Peru, the world's largest producers of cocaine. Troops found the submarine in a mangrove swamp in the Cayapas–Mataje nature reserve, along with a camp nearby that was being used by criminals as a logistics hub to prepare vessels for smuggling drugs.