Royal Navy celebrates record year after seizing over £450m in drug busts

Raids in the Gulf and Caribbean landed the navy £456m worth of drugs – over £150m more than in 2019 which saw £290m seized.

The bulk of drugs captured this year involved stings by navy support vessel RFA Argus which scooped a massive £340m worth of illegal substances.

Most of the drugs were captured between September and December with Argus returning home triumphant earlier this month after seizing more than £400m of drugs in the Caribbean.

During the last three months, Falmouth ship Argus alongside patrol ship HMS Medway – the Royal Navy’s permanent forward presence in the Caribbean, which calls Portsmouth her home port – seized 5,373kg of cocaine and 28kg of amphetamines, in eight separate busts.

Argus had been in Bermuda, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos, the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands to prepare for potential aid missions, working alongside French, Dutch and US forces.

Argus’ commanding officer, Captain Kevin Rimell, said after the bust: ‘This deployment has delivered unprecedented success in counter-narcotics operations.

‘This has been made possible by a team of highly professional and experienced personnel embarked in Argus, the culmination of which has been the support we have delivered to the people of Honduras in the aftermath of two hurricanes.’

The final drugs bust before the journey home in December saw an American patrol aircraft notify the control room of a nearby suspect vessel.

The ship’s Wildcat helicopter and a combined Royal Marines and US Coast Guard (USCG) team were quickly dispatched and 375kg of cocaine was seized – worth £30m on UK streets.

The remarkable efforts of the ship’s company reinforced the importance of being proactive internationally, said First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin.

He said: ‘I am extremely proud of what RFA Argus has achieved during her deployment.

‘Protecting our overseas territories is a key part of the Royal Navy’s role in defending the UK’s interests worldwide.

‘From countering drug smugglers to delivering humanitarian aid, Argus has proven just how versatile the Royal Navy is, and how valuable our continued forward presence remains.’

In early February, £40m of cocaine were prevented from reaching the streets after an combined Anglo-French-American bust in the Caribbean which snared a drug-running team.

Support ship RFA Mounts Bay and a US Coastguard team pounced on two speedboats as they raced through open seas south of the US Virgin Islands.

They seized 1.4 tonnes of illegal narcotics – which turned out to be cocaine, worth more than £35m.

The traffickers managed to ditch 150kg of drugs in the Caribbean before they were intercepted – ensuring another £3.75m of cocaine would not make it onto the streets.

Two weeks after that success, sailors and Royal Marines bagged more than a tonne of cannabis when they intercepted drug smugglers on the infamous Hashish Highway.

The team from HMS Montrose recovered bales of hash from the waters of the Gulf of Oman – then found a secret narcotics cache hidden aboard a dhow during a two-day operation which resulted in a haul worth more than £6m on the streets of the UK being seized by the Royal Navy frigate.

Earlier in the month, HMS Montrose also busted £1m worth of cannabis in the Gulf.

Last year Portsmouth-based HMS Dragon alone was responsible for £67m worth of heroin and cannabis busts in the Gulf.

SEE ALSO: New ship joins fleet

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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