Damn, missed another one

Rico had the notion of using submarines to move drugs quite awhile ago, and should have written a prescient book back then.
Now it's all over the news: "Traffickers have perfected the design and manufacture of semi-submersible craft (they look like submarines, but don't fully submerge). In 2006, American officials say they detected only three; now they are spotting an average of ten a month. Of those, only one in ten is intercepted. Many sail up the Pacific coast, often far out to sea. With enough cargo space to carry two to five tons of cocaine, they also carry large fuel tanks, giving them a range of 2,000 miles (3,200km). They are typically made of fibreglass, powered by a 300/350hp diesel engine and manned by a crew of four. They normally unload their cargo onto fast power boats for the final leg to shore. None has been sighted unloading at ports or beaches. Interdiction of cocaine shipments fell by 20% last year. Stopping the subs requires “wide-area surveillance systems, acoustics and better intelligence,” says Admiral James Stavridis, the head of the United States' Southern Command, based in Miami. Having shot drug planes out of the sky, and used army troops to destroy coca fields and laboratories, it seems that the drug warriors will have to move into anti-submarine warfare."

Rico says it'll give the Navy something to do, now that the Russians aren't so scary any more...