Australia — HMAS Parramatta seizes US$5 million in illegal narcotics

The Ship’s Com­pa­ny of HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta has suc­cess­ful­ly seized and destroyed more than 240 kilo­grams of ille­gal nar­cotics.

The nar­cotics with an esti­mat­ed street val­ue of US $5 mil­lion, were seized dur­ing an inves­tiga­tive board­ing of a ves­sel in the North Ara­bi­an Sea on Fri­day 3 Feb­ru­ary 2012. 

Com­bined Task Force 150 (CTF 150), part of the Unit­ed States led Com­bined Mar­itime Forces (CMF) direct­ed HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta to inter­cept, board, and search the sus­pect vessel. 

The search revealed over 240 kilo­grams of amphet­a­mine and hero­in con­cealed in bags of flour and rice which were sub­se­quent­ly destroyed. 

The Aus­tralian Com­man­der of CTF 150, Com­modore Jonathan Mead said, “This rep­re­sents the cul­mi­na­tion of many months of hard work, plan­ning and inter­na­tion­al co-operation.” 

The Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta, Com­man­der Guy Black­burn, described the mis­sion as a sig­nif­i­cant event. 

“This was a great day for HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta, the Com­bined Mar­itime Forces and the Aus­tralian Forces in the Mid­dle East Area of Oper­a­tions,” Com­man­der Black­burn said. 

HMAS Parramatta’s focus is to enforce mar­itime secu­ri­ty in the Mid­dle East Area of Oper­a­tions as part of the mul­ti-nation­al Com­bined Mar­itime Task Force. 

When called upon, CMF also responds to Safe­ty of Life at Sea and human­i­tar­i­an crises. CMF includes par­tic­i­pa­tion and con­tri­bu­tions from 25 counties. 

HMAS Par­ra­mat­ta is deployed on Oper­a­tion SLIPPER and is the 27th rota­tion by a Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy ship to the region since 2001. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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