Navy snipers seize £40m of cocaine off Barbados

[Batgirl]

By Kim Sengupta
Thursday, 3 July 2008

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.

Despite additional resources being devoted to tackling the illicit shipments, officials involved in drugs operations acknowledge that the risk of being caught is much less on this route than into the US, and traffickers who are apprehended once they are in Europe are rarely extradited.

The Prince, who served in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry, was flown out to the Iron Duke by helicopter from Barbados. He is on a five-week training attachment and Commander Mark Newland, the ship's commanding officer, promised that the Prince "will contribute to all aspects of our operations, including counter-drugs and disaster relief planning".

Commander Newland said: "This is a fantastic start to HMS Iron Duke's North Atlantic deployment. To have a direct impact on the flow of cocaine into Europe, just four days after we arrived in theatre shows the benefit the Royal Navy can have in maritime security.

"From the first moment the Lynx helicopter discovered the suspect vessel, my ship's company, working hand-in-glove with the US coastguards, turned this opportunity into a certainty and ultimately successful seizure. I am immensely proud of all their efforts."

The seizure is welcome news for HMS Iron Duke, which has in the past attracted publicity for the wrong reasons. Two weeks ago a member of the crew was arrested after allegations of an indecent assault on a woman in the Barbadian capital, Bridgetown. In 2006, sailors from the ship were accused of going on a drunken rampage at St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly.

The Independent