UK destroyer in $66m cocaine swoop

A Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique -- A British Royal Navy destroyer has seized cocaine worth an estimated street value of $66 million off the coast of Martinique in the Caribbean.

HMS Newcastle took the illegal cargo overnight from a yacht near the island after a high-speed chase, a Navy spokesman said.

The seizure came just 24 hours after the destroyer confiscated 100 bales of marijuana from a Barbados-based fishing boat in the region.

The Navy ship had arrived in the Caribbean only recently for a counter-drugs operation after a spell as a patrol ship operating off the west coast of Africa and in the South Atlantic.

The destroyer's commanding officer, Commander Jeremy Blunden, told the UK's Press Association that the crew had seized 570kg of "pure, uncorrupted cocaine."

"We have struck a fairly serious blow in the international war on drugs," Cmdr. Blunden said.

"The Caribbean drug runners all know we are here now and that's going to be a major deterrent on future movements."

Cmdr. Blunden described the seizure as "a fantastic result."

"It was while we were dealing with the previous bust that our tanker, RFA Oakleaf, which was 100 miles to the south of us reported a speed boat passing them with all the characteristics of a drugs runner.

"We then had an extremely exciting high-speed chase which involved military aircraft and resulted in us intercepting and stopping the speed boat just after dark off the coast of Martinique last night," he said.

No drugs were found on the speed boat so HMS Newcastle returned to a yacht spotted near the vessel earlier.

The Navy destroyer then tailed the yacht all night before swooping shortly before dawn today, Cmdr. Blunden said.

"Just before first light this morning we bore down on him and once he saw us we could see he was ditching his cargo.

"We launched the sea boat and recovered two of the bales which tested positive for cocaine."

A total of 23 bales of cocaine were eventually recovered and HMS Newcastle was in the process of detaining two men, he said.

The French authorities have been informed and law enforcement officials from the U.S. Coast Guard were on their way to the scene.