sewell94

from another forum


http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/att...-drugboat1.jpg



Don't know if any of you have come across this story:

A 2,000 HP, Outboard Inflatable - not your typical trolling fishing boat.

It allegedly zapped across the English channel three times per week and was just a blur on the radar of the British coast guard and needed a specialized chopper to catch it

And when they caught it discovered on board 300 kg's. of pure cocaine!

That was three years ago when Richard Davison, the managing director of Crompton Marine, and his girlfriend, Ellen George, were arrested after Spanish authorities conducted an anti-drug smuggling investigation.

The operation seized a number of boats sold by the company and reported them to British customs officials. The two were suspected of using Crompton Marine as a front for supplying high-speed inflatable boats to illegal drug merchants, advertising them as "high-speed, uncatchable craft that have a low radar signature."

After the couple's arrest, a third party, Ian Rush, allegedly carried on their underground boat trade under the name Nautexco Marine and was also arrested. Evidence presented during Rush's trial this month indicated that Davison and George (and later, Rush) were making secret deals for boats like the one pictured here: craft between 30 ft. and60 ft. long, costing as much as £350,000 ($680,000 US), and featuring up to eight 250-horsepower engines (with a total fuel storage capacity of 15,000 litres) which enabled them to outrun pursuers at speeds up 60 knots. The craft were designed with low profiles (to avoid radar detection) and were painted grey or black to make them difficult to spot on the water.
Watch this space... too late - it's gone....

CspecRun

That is insane. Smuggling drugs in a high speed inflatable raft(a $680k inflatable raft) with 8 BIG outboard boat engines. That's some serious ----...

McBoost

----... you could power a pretty big snail with 8 motors.

BigD

I can honestly say I would be scared as hell driving that thing all out. We came up with a idea once (a little high and a little intoxicated) to build small unmanned subs that work off gps to smuggle drugs. Seemed workable, but as with many dreams it went up in smoke

crx2211

Good idea! Around here people smuggle with kayaks. They go from BC just a little into US waters and then drop the goods in a crab pot or something with a GPS locater. Then they get picked up on the US side by some unassuming couple out for a little kayak trip. Another thought I had was a good place to grow would be on a boat. Get an old crabbing boat with a giant hold and moor it somewhere. You can run HPS bulbs all day on a crab boat undetected because the ------- deck lights are already 1,000W HPS! Not to mention the hold is temperature controlled and you can make your own power with the onboard diesel generator.