That sinking feeling: Colombian drug cartel’s latest weapon is captured… a submarine that hasn't even been on its maiden voyage

A massive drug smuggling operation by rebels in Colombia has been sunk after authorities seized a submarine used to transport narcotics.
The vessel - which is capable of storing at least seven tonnes of drugs and has a sophisticated navigation system - belonged to the FARC terrorist organisation, which is financed through the drug trade.
But on Friday officers captured the sub near the Pacific port of Buenaventura just as it was about to embark on its first drug run.

Sunk: Officers guard the submarine seized from the FARC's 29th Front, in Mayorquin, Buenaventura. Authorities say that the sub could be used to carry seven tons of cocaine illegally to any port in Central America
Authorities believe the 52ft vessel cost around £1.3million and could travel submerged throughout the Central American region and Mexico with a crew of five.
'It was going to be used by the narco-terrorist 29th front of the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] in alliance with organisations of drug traffickers who operate in this southern area of the country,' drugs police chief Gene Luis Alberto Perez Alvarado said, adding that it 'has not yet done its first trip'.
Colombia is the centre of the cocaine industry and much of the supply is ferried to Mexico and then on to the U.S. and Canada. Colombia also provides the majority of cocaine consumed in Europe.

Heavy metal: The vessel was capable of shipping seven tonnes of cocaine
Initially FARC - a Marxist revolutionary group opposed to U.S. 'imperialism' in the region - earned millions of dollars in revenue through protection and taxation rackets with cocaine growers.
But since the 1990s, it has increasingly become directly involved in the production and trafficking of cocaine and the vast majority of its estimated £200million annual revenue now comes from the drugs industry.