Every technology developed for good later has a dark side. The Internet, which was developed for sharing knowledge, is now a favorite medium for angry farmers. Torrents, which facilitate the sharing of large-sized data, have become a medium for piracy. Now it's the turn of Starlink, which offers internet wherever you are, to be used for drug smuggling.
The Colombian Navy has successfully intercepted a submarine drone remotely controlled using a Starlink User Terminal. When intercepted, the drone, which had a capacity of 1.5 tons of cargo, was found empty, indicating that it may still be being tested by South American drug cartels. The cartels have been using submarines to smuggle drugs from Colombia to the United States since the heyday of Pablo Escobar.
This is not the first time that submarine drones using Starlink technology have been intercepted by authorities. The first incident was detected in November 2024 in the waters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a cargo of amphetamines worth $4.25 billion (~RM 18 billion). Without a crew, the drones can be safely controlled remotely. Even if intercepted, no crew could be interrogated to leak operational secrets.