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Comment by aresant | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of a VICE program around Columbian Narco Submarines (1)

The show highlights, at one point, a guy who engineered an incredible drug "torpedo" that could be towed behind a fast boat, cut and dropped instantly if trouble arose, and recovered via digital homing beacons safe and sound at a later time.

I was struck by how proud he was of it, from a purely technical perspective.

And it was a damn smart solution to a problem, albeit one that was unfortunately illegal.

(1) https://www.vice.com/video/colombian-narcosubs

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The war on drugs is over. I realized it was over when I also read about the narco subs, now there are narco drones. Drones delivering drugs over the border. Narco subs delivering drugs. Horizontal directional drilling like the ones used in shale gas exploration are also used to deliver drugs. It has turned into a technology war.

The probation of drugs in US is bringing much damage to neighboring supplier countries south of the border such as Mexico where the real costs of the drugs are felt in human lives. The war on drugs is exactly the same problem as we had during the alcohol probation in the 1930s, maffia like Alcapone taking over Chicago, if the state legalizes the drugs there is better opportunity to treat and help the drug users. As long as there are drug users there will be drug suppliers.

The DEA's budget is nearly $3B. I'd doubt RC technology can compete against that.

For manufacturers, the profit margins on illegal drugs are absurd. A lab in Mexico can make meth for $500/kg. Once that meth is in the US, it can sell for $60,000/kg.[1] In other words, manufacturers can lose 90% of their product and still make tons of money.

Unless the DEA intercepts practically every drug drone sent across the border, people are going to keep at it. The money's just too good.

1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/...

I was talking to a customs officer in Australia who said that some drugs were just dumped overboard and collected from the shore. Even with a loss rate of ~90% from customs intervention and/or not making it to the beach, he said it was still profitable enough that they kept on doing it.

Are you being facetious? Rand Corporation estimates the US illegal drug market to be over $109B.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-10/more-pot-les...

That is so much more money than the government has to fight it. Look into how Mexican cartels are actually kidnapping engineers to build infrastructure for their paramilitary operations: http://www.wired.com/2012/11/zeta-radio/

One of the common tactics for smuggling by boat is to keep it in garbage bags. You weight the drug bags, and carry ordinary garbage on board. If you get stopped, you throw all the bags. The coast guard only find you dumping garbage and the most they can do is slap you with a fine.

The DEA's budget is nearly $3B, and they can't do shit against rocks in a bag. The DEA's budget could be $3 Trillion, and they still couldn't do shit against rocks in a bag.

Convictions require evidence.

Um, the drug cartels were the first to buy big mainframes for data mining to optimize their operations and to find their traitors. That was 1994.

http://cocaine.org/cokecrime/

I suspect that the cartels have already analyzed the cost. I'd bet that an autonomous sub is much more cost effective.

The TSA's budget is $7.6B and you'd be surprised the DIY things that can compete against that.

The war on drugs isn't over, because it never started being about drugs in the first place.

The only thing that's over is its ability to justify itself.

That's old school. I remember hearing that similar was done already during prohibition where they used some sort of glue in torpedo which would release a small buoy after few days so the lost booze could be found.

Some of those also used a salt block for the "glue". It would dissolve over the course of a day or two, releasing a buoy or indicator.

Various sorts of commercial fishermen use these to keep the buoys of their traps submerged until pickup time. This prevents both accidental loss from fouling boats and poaching.

You can get them in grades from 1 to 30 days, though temperature also gets to play a role.

http://www.neptunemarineproducts.com/galvanic-timed-releases...

Looks like you can also use them to prevent "ghost fishing" where a lost fish trap continues to trap fish for years or for timed bait release schemes.

It's ColOmbia, not ColUmbia. It's a really pervasive misspelling which causes many Colombians grief.

and Columbians.

I think it's also worth mentioning the half-mile long drug tunnel discovered in 2010 – a full rail system was built about 70 ft under the surface that carted drugs from Tijuana to San Diego.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EFsFAoAEMw

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