Semi-subs used to smuggle drugs into US
When anti-narcotics agents first heard that drug cartels were building an armada of submarines to transport cocaine, they thought it was a joke.
Now U.S. law enforcement officials say that more than a third of the cocaine smuggled into the United States from Colombia travels in submersibles.
An experimental oddity just two years ago, these strange semi-submarines are the cutting edge of drug trafficking today. They ferry hundreds of tons of cocaine for powerful Mexican cartels that are taking over the Pacific Ocean route for most northbound shipments, according to the Colombian navy.
The sub-builders are even trying to develop a remote-controlled model, officials say.
“That means no crew. That means just cocaine, or whatever, inside the boat,” said Michael Braun, a former chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The subs are powered by ordinary diesel engines and built of simple fiberglass in clandestine shipyards in the Colombian jungle. U.S. officials expect 70 or more to be launched this year with a potential cargo capacity of 380 tons of cocaine, worth billions of dollars in the United States.
“This is definitely the next generation of smuggling conveyance,” said Joseph Ruddy, an assistant U.S. attorney in Tampa who prosecutes narco-mariners.
The submersibles are equipped with technologies that make them difficult to intercept, even though U.S. forces use state-of-the-art submarine warfare strategies against them. Authorities say most slip through their net.
“You try finding a floating log in the middle of the Pacific,” one DEA agent said.
U.S. officials and their Colombian counterparts have detected evidence of more than 115 submersible voyages since 2006. They have apprehended the crews of more than 22 submersibles at sea since 2007. Six crews have been arrested this year. The Colombian navy has intercepted or discovered 33 subs since 1993.
U.S. officials fear that the rogue vessels could be used by terrorists intent on reaching the United States with deadly cargos.
Yesterday, ten men in Britain were jailed for attempting to smuggle 12.5 British tons of cannabis into the country.
There are four verses in particular that speak of drugs in Revelation. Most English versions of the book use the words sorcery, sorceries, and sorcerer, but these are not accurate translations. Let’s look at the four verses briefly, using the New King James Version and a Greek dictionary.
Revelation 9:21: And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries.
Revelation 18:23: For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.
In both of the above verses, the Greek word rendered as sorcery/sorceries is pharmakeia, and means “medication store.” This is where we get our English word “pharmacy” from. A pharmacy is a place where you go to get drugs.
Revelation 21:8: But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
The word sorcerers in this verse is the Greek word pharmakeus, and it literally means “druggists.” This where we get our English word “pharmacists” from. A pharmacist is a person who sells drugs.
Revelation 22:15: But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
In this verse, sorcerers is actually the Greek word pharmakos, and it is essentially an earlier form of the pharmakeus of Revelation 21:8. It means someone who is addicted to drugs, and gives us the English word “pharmacology,” or the practice of looking to drugs for an answer.
As an interesting side note, this pharmakos actually became a term for a pagan religion where a human scapegoat would be expelled from the city in time of crisis, in an effort to bring relief upon the land. Today, many people look to mind and emotion altering drugs to escape from the pressures of life.
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