UK Navy commandos seize huge cocaine shipment

Independent:

The Navy is using Special Boat Service snipers to intercept cocaine shipments heading to Europe from producers in Colombia and Bolivia, it emerged last night.

A team of special forces soldiers was on board a Lynx helicopter on Saturday – also carrying Prince William – that spotted and stopped a smuggling vessel north-east of Barbados. The boat was en route to Europe from Latin America. The Prince was among a team dispatched from his ship, HMS Iron Duke, which intercepted the 50ft speedboat, known as a "go-fast".

American coastguards and British sailors who boarded the boat discovered more than 900kg of cocaine with a street value of £40m. It is believed the shipment was destined for cities in Europe, including the UK.

The team aboard the Lynx became suspicious after spotting the power boat 200 miles out to sea, and arrested the five crew members on board. The boat, which was said to be in poor condition, sank soon after it had been searched. Prince William had joined HMS Iron Duke, a 4,900-ton frigate, four days before the raid.

The ship, originally designed as a submarine hunter, is part of a counter-narcotics operation that has been stepped up following an increase in cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe in the past two years. It is also tasked with providing humanitarian assistance between June and October, the core hurricane season.

...

It is an interesting use of special operation troops, but it is somewhat surprising in a time of war that they would be operating in this area rather than in the combat zone. Hopefully this will be a blow to the drug trade from Colombia and Bolivia. It would be interesting to know if they transited through Venezuela.

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