28 January 2014
More than a tonne of cocaine has been seized by RFA Wave Knight and US Coast Guards in a £60m blow dealt to the illegal drugs trade.
The bust, south of the Dominican Republic, means brings the total of drugs confiscated by the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary this winter to more than £230m.
THE blow that the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary has struck to drug lords in the Americas this winter now stands at £230m after more than a tonne of cocaine was seized by RFA Wave Knight.
The tanker and its US Coast Guard allies pounced on a speed boat off the Dominican Republic – bringing it to a halt with disabling fire before recovering 45 bales of cocaine.
The illicit cargo would be worth more than £60m on the streets of Britain.
The hunt began on the night of January 22 when a US Coast Guard patrol aircraft, Wave Knight and a Coast Guard helicopter embarked on the tanker all gave chase to a speedboat racing through international waters south of the Dominican Republic.
The Coast Guard helicopter fired warning shots in an attempt to get the boat to stop but as the suspected smugglers were observed jettisoning the bales of drugs overboard the decision was made to use disabling fire on the vessel.
Wave Knight quickly launched one of her sea boats with a US Coast Guard boarding team to board and question those on board the suspect vessel.
At the same time the tanker launched a second boat to haul in the ditched bales of cocaine, and succeeded in recovering 45.
Four crew of the go-fast were detained, while the haul of drugs was checked; it totalled around 1.25 tonnes of cocaine with a value of more than £60m.
The cocaine and detainees were handed over to the US authorities off the coast of Puerto Rico.
“RFA Wave Knight, working seamlessly with the US Coast Guard, has demonstrated her capability and resolve to disrupt the illicit drug trade. On this occasion, a significant amount of Class A drugs has been stopped from reaching the streets of the UK and USA,” said Capt Duncan Lamb RFA, Wave Knight’s Commanding Officer.
The interdiction marks the first time an armed U.S Coast Guard helicopter has embarked on a foreign military vessel in support of the international effort to halt the flow of drugs.
The drugs are loaded aboard a US Coast Guard vessel
In conjunction with HMS Lancaster – which spent the second half of 2013 in the Caribbean – the Royal Navy and RFA dealt a blow to the illegal drugs trade in the Americas of nearly £170m as of the tail end of last year, culminating with a seizure of marijuana by Wave Knight on Boxing Day.
“Once again the Royal Navy have played a key role in the international mission to tackle the drugs trade from the Caribbean,” said Defence Secretary Philip Hammond of the latest bust.
“The crew of RFA Wave Knight should be proud of their role in seizing such a massive amount of drugs, made more impressive as it is their second successful operation within a month.”