A Royal Navy patrol vessel has seized cocaine worth £24million after a dramatic chase off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Three crew members and the drugs, weighing more than 400kg, were taken off a smugglers' speedboat before it was sunk by the Caribbean-based patrol ship HMS Medway.
The vessel, which is believed to have come from South America, was pursued in a joint operation with a US Coast Guard law enforcement detachment and an accompanying aircraft. The National Crime Agency said the drugs seized would have been worth £24 million had they reached Britain’s streets.
The boat, which is thought to have travelled along a common smuggling route, was boarded by officers after a pursuit and found to contain several large packages of drugs, the Royal Navy said. “To secure an interdiction on our first day dedicated to this type of operation in this period has been tremendous,” said Commander Chris Hollingworth, commanding officer of Medway.
