The ‘Narco-Subs’ Helping to Flood Europe With Cocaine
Story by Eve Hartley
VIGO, Spain—Three cardboard boxes labeled cocaina are dragged across the floor at an undisclosed location run by customs authorities in Galicia, Spain. Authorities remove sealants to reveal that inside each container are dozens of 1 kilogram blocks of cocaine. The officials say they have a street value of more than €60,000 ($68,000) each.
Laura Piñeiro, the head of customs police in Vigo, lifts them onto a table, causing white powder to spill out. She continues as particles of cocaine float around the room.
“This is just a sample from the shipments we seized last year,” Piñeiro says. “We have already destroyed a lot of cocaine taken in 2025.” She explains they were running out of room to store it.
In the video above, The Wall Street Journal got rare access as it went out on patrol with customs agents in northern Spain who are scouring the coast every day for drug traffickers.
Galicia’s rocky coastline, as well as its decadeslong cultural ties with Latin American cartels, have made it a hub for what traffickers and authorities have dubbed “narco-subs.” These vessels are rarely full-fledged submarines, but instead are often semi-submersible vessels, predominantly built in South American jungles.
While they have been known to operate in the Pacific Ocean for decades, narco-subs have since been found on new routes to Europe and Australia. Authorities say their designs have also become more advanced in recent years.
“It’s like a cat and mouse,” says Fernando Iglesias, the head of customs police in Galicia, of the dynamic between drug-enforcement agents and smugglers. At least five narco-subs a year could be heading to Galicia, according to Spanish intelligence estimates.
As Spanish officials say cartels are increasingly using underwater smuggling routes, for Iglesias and authorities across the continent, catching the mice has never been harder.
“In just four years, they developed a better vessel with more capacity,” Iglesias said, pointing to how more cocaine was found in a narco-sub found in 2023, compared with the first one found in Europe in 2019.
“They’re specializing and we need to specialize also in detection,” he adds.
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