“At least 13 of the craft have been stopped and their crews prosecuted in U.S. courts since October 2008, according to the Justice Department. The first was intercepted in 2006.”
I have never heard of this...and I REALLY follow the news...WTF? How is THAT possible? Oh man, there is so much BS we don’t hear about...this is an assault, in my opinion, an act of war...why has this not been in the news at all? I mean isn’t this in FOX’s wheelhouse, at least?
The really scary part about this, is if these guys can obtain them and operate them. So can terrorists.
Imagine one packed to the gills with explosives, drive right up underneath a cruise ship or the real nightmare is one carrying a crude nuke.
Some of them don’t even have human crews. Just a long range on a small diesel, and a GPS connected to an autopilot. Steering from waypoint to waypoint, it will travel thousands of miles and finally run itself onto a beach when it arrives to be unloaded. Lots of unwatched beaches in the Bahamas.
This technique is almost 10 years old —only the additional use of GPS and most lately new techniques to diminish the thermal signature of the exhaust is new —they run it past cold ocean water before it is vented.
I don’t know what % are totally automated, but probably the figure is still low, something that will probably change. The terminal leg of the journey features very low speeds for better stealth.
Traditionally crews were kidnapped fisherman with an enforcer aboard, and the trip was one-way for the vessel, supposedly with the crew flying back home, although you can imagine if they were troublesome enough then the journey for many could also be one-way.
A dirty rumor is that logistics for the construction of some of these vessels comes from Middle-Eastern non-state actors.
Most cocaine imported into the USA is done using this technique now.