Police stops drug submarine with Starlink remote control

The Colombian marine has for the first time a remote-controlled drug submarine over Elon Musk’s Starlink. Apparently, a drug cartel from the South American country wanted to test the control of the drone boat via satellite internet.

No human helmsman on board

According to a report by the French news station France24 The Navy of Colombia announced last week that a so-called “semi-submars table” was first caught off the country’s coast, with which drugs should be transported to the United States in the future. What is a proven technology in itself, however, differs in an important detail – it was not a crew on board.

The “half-submarine” constructed with simple means, in which the majority of the water drives under the water surface, did not have a human helmsman on board. Instead, a Starlink unit was found. The “satellite bowl” was coupled with the drug boat’s control system, so that it could be remotely controlled from afar over the Internet.

Smuggler probably wanted to start a test

The authorities suspect that it was a kind of test run because the boat had no freight on board. As early as November 2024, there was a first similar case when the Indian police also found around 700 nautical miles off the country’s coast of a self-made self-made drone in the form of a boat.

Actually, the often simply constructed boats, which usually almost completely immerse yourself in the water, were developed for drug transport between southern and North America, but for some time they have also appeared on routes over the Atlantic or the Pacific on the high seas. Starlink is a slightly available means for controlling drug boats because the risk of a human crew emerges. The service in the variant for use on the high seas with almost complete global cover costs only about $ 50 per month if you get by with 250 gigabytes of data volume.

The most expensive variant with two terabytes inclusive volume is offered for a good 2000 euros per month. However, not particularly large amounts of data are transmitted to the control of a simple smuggling boat, especially since the profits in drug smuggling are potentially gigantic. Another advantage for the smugglers is that you can control several boats with a small team.

With the Starlink-controlled drug boats, the authorities have an option to find out the operators. If Musks cooperates, the satellite terminals on board can be assigned to certain users. If necessary, you can use this information to catch the perpetrators when unloading the boats in the crime.