ROYAL NAVY ASSISTS IN £1/4BILLION DRUGS SEIZURE
Royal Navy News
09-May-2003
The Royal Navy assisted British and Spanish Customs officers in an operation that seized a record 3.6 tonnes of cocaine worth over a quarter of a billion pounds sterling.
The frigate HMS Cumberland and the new Royal Fleet Auxiliary Wave Knight provided support to the Customs officers in the boarding at high speed of a converted motor torpedo boat attempting to smuggle the drugs into Europe. Fleet Air Arm aircraft were also involved in the operation in mid-Atlantic, which led to the arrest by the Spanish officers of eight men. The value of the huge consignment of cocaine is estimated at over £250 million.
Captain Mike Mansergh, commanding officer of HMS Cumberland, said:
"This has been a most successful operation, in which the Ships' Companies of HMS Cumberland and RFA Wave Knight performed superbly in the interdiction of such a large quantity of cocaine. This operation demonstrates that the Royal Navy is still fully involved in important missions to protect British interests worldwide, despite our recent commitments in the Gulf."
This latest haul brings to over £1,570 million the value of drugs seized in Royal Navy counter-narcotics operations in the last five years.
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