Royal Navy seize more than a ton of heroin worth £160million
Operation Shirikisho targeted four fishing boats headed for Europe in the Indian Ocean
THIS is the massive haul of more than a ton of heroin worth £160million seized in drug busts led by the Royal Navy.
Operation Shirikisho targeted four fishing boats in the Indian Ocean last month.
It is thought the drugs, which were later destroyed, were bound for Europe via Africa.
Commodore Guy Robinson, head of a joint task force including French and Australian navies, said: “This has been a highly successful operation to prevent a very significant amount of heroin reaching Europe.
"It is also an excellent example of the impressive co-operation across CMF contributing-nations, at sea, in the air and ashore.
"We will continue to tackle this menace whenever, and wherever we can."
The first haul of narcotics was made by the Royal Australian Navy when HMAS Darwin's boarding team targeted a 20m fishing dhow in May.
A few days later a French Marine Nationale ship patrolling off the coast of East Africa sent a boarding team to search another dhow, recovering 130kg of heroin.
UK-led CTF 150 is part of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a multi-national naval partnership, which covers 3.2 million square miles of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and the Gulf region.
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Capt John Craig, the Deputy Commander of CTF 150, added: "In addition to the successful seizure of such a large amount of drugs, operations like Shirikisho help us refine our tactical skills as we coordinate extensive air searches over enormous areas of ocean to locate traffickers in very small dhows.
"The opportunity to work with French and Australian ships and aircraft also improves our collective understanding of each other's operating capabilities, to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be for operations in the future.
"Multi-national co-operation has been vital to the success of the operation."
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