The Colombian Navy announced earlier this week that it had seized a makeshift semi-submersible off the Caribbean coast. Drug cartels have already been using this technique for several years now to smuggle drugs into the United States and other countries, but this is the first time that a vessel has been discovered that was plying the illicit route with no one inside. According to France 24, authorities stated that it was equipped with a Starlink User Terminal, enabling the boat to remain connected to the internet even in high seas and be controlled remotely. Nevertheless, the narco-sub was empty during the interdiction, meaning it was likely a test run for future smuggling operations.
This isn’t the first time that authorities have caught a remotely operated low-profile vessel. The first recorded incident happened in November 2024, when Indian police seized a makeshift drone vessel using Starlink near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands — more than 700 miles from the Indian subcontinent. Drug cartels are becoming more sophisticated when it comes to shipping contraband. These boats were initially designed for routes between North and South America, but they’ve recently been spotted sailing across the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Equipping Starlink to these vessels is the logical next step for these operations. After all, these drug-running missions are inherently hazardous, with reports of boats getting intercepted with dead crews onboard. Furthermore, the human factor introduces additional risk because individuals can be bribed and, if apprehended, may even turn against the organization as witnesses. On the other hand, international high-speed wireless internet allows these boats to be remotely operated, so even if the authorities intercept them, there would be no person onboard to interrogate.
Starlink plans that allow for oceanic and global land use can get expensive, with prices ranging from $250 (50GB) to $2,150 (2TB) per month. However, you really don’t need that much data to control a boat, and the value of the carried cargo — ranging between millions and billions of dollars — makes the cost of setting up satellite internet communications negligible.
This new way of using Starlink will make it harder for governments to catch drug runners sailing the seas, mainly as a single crew can remotely operate multiple drone boats. But even though the removal of onboard crews on these narco-subs reduces the human factor risk, each Starlink dish is still tied to a specific account. So, if intelligence agencies can determine the entities that sign up for these accounts, and if SpaceX cooperates, they can track these user terminals on these narco-subs and then capture them as the land-side of the operation is unloading its drug cargo.
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