Friday, September 15, 2006

LONDON, England (Reuters): A gang of Caribbean drug runners was forced to scuttle its own boat after Britain's Royal Navy swooped on the vessel, preventing cocaine with an estimated street value of up to 500 million pounds heading towards Britain, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

The suspected smugglers sank their fishing boat and set fire to its cargo off the coast of Barbados after being spotted by the "Wave Ruler", a Royal Fleet auxiliary ship, last Sunday.

The fishing boat is thought to have been carrying up to five tonnes of cocaine, officials said.

Ten suspected smugglers were arrested by U.S. Coastguard officers during the operation which the Ministry of Defence believes to be one of the biggest drug busts of all time.

"The removal of this cocaine from the system will be a serious blow to the traffickers and prevent drugs from reaching the streets where they cause misery and crime," said Captain William Tait, commanding officer of the "Wave Ruler".

The chase started in the early hours of last Sunday when the "Wave Ruler's" bridge team spotted a suspicious vessel at around 1:30 a.m. local time.

The crew of the suspect boat almost immediately set their vessel on fire after it was illuminated by the signalling projector of the "Wave Ruler".

Within minutes the whole boat was ablaze and crew members tried to escape on smaller boats but all 10 were arrested.

Much of the cargo was destroyed but cocaine with a street value of 65 million pounds was recovered from the sea when it floated to the surface.

The last drugs bust by a UK ship in the Caribbean was in February this year when Royal Navy guided missile destroyer "HMS Southampton" and the tanker "RFA Grey Rover" seized three and a half tonnes from a cargo ship in the south west Caribbean.

The previous largest hauls by British warships in recent years were two busts within a week by "HMS Marlborough" in May 1999, each of four tonnes of cocaine.

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