{"id":44741,"date":"2014-07-08T14:35:57","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T14:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=45edc2dd1613e9db526d569d99aeb92f"},"modified":"2014-07-08T14:35:57","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T14:35:57","slug":"news-story-uk-leads-fight-against-drugs-with-18-million-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=44741","title":{"rendered":"News story: UK leads fight against drugs with \u00a318 million seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Australian ship HMAS Darwin has confiscated drugs with an estimated UK street value of around \u00a318 million as part of UK-led <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalnavy.mod.uk\/news-and-latest-activity\/operations\/indian-ocean\/ctf-150\">Combined Task Force (<abbr title=\"Combined Task Force\">CTF<\/abbr>) 150<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The bust was made following a 12-hour operation in which boarding teams found the drugs hidden in the hull of a dhow in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The 6,248-kilogram haul of cannabis resin, also known as hash or hashish, is the largest found in the Indian Ocean to date.<\/p>\n<p>Minister for the Armed Forces, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/people\/mark-francois\">Mark Francois<\/a>, said of the Royal Navy\u2019s fight against drugs: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As the son of a naval veteran, I am proud of the work the Royal Navy does around the world combating the global trade in illicit narcotics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The hard work and determination of our personnel on these international operations have yielded valuable results, with millions of pounds worth of drugs taken off our streets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Boarding teams approach the dhow\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/28350\/20140628ran8119365_065.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Boarding teams from HMAS Darwin approach the dhow [Picture: Able Seaman Sarah Williams, Royal Australian Navy]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is the eighth seizure during HMAS Darwin\u2019s current deployment to the Middle East as part of <abbr title=\"Combined Task Force\">CTF<\/abbr> 150. On 23 April, the ship set a new record for the most heroin seized at sea when 1,032kg was discovered on a dhow in international waters off the coast of east Africa.  <\/p>\n<p>And, in figures provided by the <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk\/\">National Crime Agency<\/a>, since April, the UK team in command of <abbr title=\"Combined Task Force\">CTF<\/abbr> 150 have overseen the interception and destruction of drugs with an estimated UK street value of over \u00a3107 million.<\/p>\n<p>Commander of <abbr title=\"Combined Task Force\">CTF<\/abbr> 150, Commodore Jeremy Blunden, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Yet again, <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.navy.gov.au\/hmas-darwin\">HMAS Darwin<\/a> has delivered an outstanding result. My congratulations to Commander Morrison and his very fine ship\u2019s company who have set new standards for professionalism and teamwork in counter-narcotics activity in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Commodore Jeremy Blunden\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/28351\/blunden.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Commodore Jeremy Blunden, Royal Navy (library image) [Picture: Combined Maritime Forces]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Royal Navy conducts counter-narcotic operations across the globe. In the US, 3 drug runners, caught as part of the work of <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.royalnavy.mod.uk\/our-organisation\/the-fighting-arms\/surface-fleet\/frigates\/hms-argyll\">HMS Argyll<\/a> in the Caribbean Sea last year, have been sentenced to a combined total of more than 40 years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 6,000 kilos of cannabis resin have been seized thanks to a British-led task force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}