Portocarrero developed a signature design, police say: a sleek V-shaped hull; a sturdy keel, which is the boat's backbone; and an exhaust system that makes the boat look like a monster from the deep.
There has been a quantum leap in detection and capture of semi-submersibles in the last two years. Fifteen have been seized, destroyed or scuttled this year in the Pacific and Caribbean, compared with only one in 2006, said Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich, head of Joint Interagency Task Force South, the Pentagon's anti-narcotics command center, based in Key West, Fla.
He estimated that as many as 60 of the vessels have slipped past patrols to deliver cocaine to Mexico and Central America. Colombian agents say Portocarrero may have been in charge of building as many as a third of the subs this year.
The trend has U.S. security officials concerned because of the craft's potential for ferrying weapons and terrorists.
"If they can't make money transferring drugs, they could always turn to something else to transfer, other illicit cargoes," Nimmich said.
A conference on the issue last month in the Colombian city of Cartagena was attended by authorities from 26 countries, including Venezuela, which has forsworn cooperation with U.S. counter-narcotics agents.
The development is the latest in the cat-and-mouse game between drug traffickers and counter-narcotics officials. Authorities believe tighter controls on Colombian and Ecuadorean fishing vessels, often used to move drugs, were a factor in the shift to subs. Since mid-2007, all fishing boats in the region have been required to carry GPS devices so police can track their movements.
The Colombian navy and police also say that so-called Midnight Express speedboats, supplied by the U.S., have improved their chances of chasing down "go-fast" outboard boats, once the preferred mode of transport.
"Speed was no longer winning the day," said a high-ranking U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official based in Colombia who noted the "exponential increase" in the use of stealthy semi-submersible vessels in the last few years. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
Police say several cocaine traffickers, looking to regain the advantage, got together to combine their cargoes and buy Portocarrero's boats, which took about six weeks each to build, said an informant who led Colombian coast guard officials to Portocarrero's mangrove shipyard. Each vessel was designed according to the load of drugs, the informant said, with the maximum cargo of 10 tons of cocaine, worth $250 million in street value.
