US Navy in Middle East seize $39 million worth drugs

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

A US Navy guided-missile destroyer seized 640 kilograms of methamphetamine worth $39 million from a fishing vessel while patrolling international waters in the Gulf of Oman yesterday. A US Coast Guard interdiction team from USS Momsen (DDG 92) discovered the illegal narcotics during a flag verification boarding in accordance with international law. The confiscated drugs and fishing vessel remain in the US custody.

The vessel’s nine crew members identified themselves as Iranian nationals and will be transferred to a regional nation for repatriation. Momsen was operating in support of Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, one of four task forces under the Combined Maritime Forces. The international naval force has increased regional patrols to locate and disrupt unlawful maritime activity. The vessel was interdicted while transiting international waters along a route historically used by criminal organizations to smuggle people, weapons, narcotics and charcoal.

Crew members attempted to discard more than 60 bales of the seized drugs as Momsen approached. CTF 150 has conducted nine successful drug seizures in 2022, resulting in the confiscation of heroin, methamphetamine, amphetamine pills and hashish worth a combined value of $130 million. Combined Maritime Forces is the largest multinational naval partnership in the world.

The organization includes 34 nations and is headquartered in Bahrain with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. 5th Fleet. US and international forces operating under US Naval Forces Central Command, US Fifth Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) have seized record amounts of illicit cargo during maritime interdictions in 2021, according to the US Central Command. Led by Vice Adm Brad Cooper, the maritime organisations conducted more seizures in 2021 after increasing patrols in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, a report by the command highlighted.

CMF seized illegal drugs worth more than BD 73 million ($193 million) at regional wholesale prices during counter-narcotics operations at sea in 2021, it added. According to the report, this is a higher total value than the drugs CMF interdicted in the previous four years combined. In another alarming revelation, the US Fifth Fleet warships seized approximately 8,700 illicit weapons in 2021, including 1,400 AK-47 assault rifles confiscated from a stateless fishing vessel in the North Arabian Sea.

The stateless vessel was assessed to have originated in Iran and transited international waters along a route historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in Yemen, the report said. “The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of weapons to the Houthis violates UN Security Council Resolutions and US sanctions.”