A Royal Navy warship seized more than £10m of drugs after Marines boarded two ships in the Indian ocean and Gulf within 12 hours, discovering tonnes of narcotics in dawn and dusk raids.
HMS Lancaster had a busy weekend as it carried out the searches on two suspect vessels, and also worked closely with the US Navy to support a merchant vessel reporting harassment.
The Type 23 frigate captured more than seven tons of hashish, heroin and methamphetamine across the two operations, which were part of the ship’s security patrol of the region, where she is deployed on a long-term mission.
In the first call as part of a dawn mission, the ship’s specialist Royal Marines boarding team found 3.5 tons of narcotics after tracking down a suspect vessel since the early hours of the morning.
That evening, the ship’s Wildcat helicopter spotted another craft and the boarding team sprang into action once again to seize a further 3.7 tons and complete the impressive double drugs bust.
