The United States Coast Guard has made a multi-million dollar drug bust off the coast of Venezuela in a joint operation with the British navy. In a nighttime operation, HMS Iron Duke, working with the U.S. Coast Guard, boarded the drug vessel and seized the cocaine-weighing three-quarters of a tonne.
The British frigate was carrying out patrols in the Caribbean as part of a multinational task force to counter drug smuggling in the region.
Iron Duke first spotted the speedboat, known as a “go-fast” which is a vessel specially built by the traffickers, and scrambled its Lynx helicopter to investigate. The frigate then launched its sea boats after the helicopter crew reported that the go-fast crew was dumping bales of cocaine overboard.
U.S. Coast Guard personnel and British crew members from the Iron Duke boarded the vessel, arrested four men and recovered 36 bales of cocaine that had been thrown overboard. The drug officials also destroyed the speedboat, which they said was a shipping hazard.
Iron Duke’s executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Alasdair Peppe called the bust "a good start" to HMS Iron Duke’s North Atlantic deployment. "After only a week on patrol the ship has made a significant seizure of cocaine," he said.
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