HMS Trent, a Royal Navy patrol ship, has successfully seized cocaine with a street value of over £40 million in the Caribbean Sea, marking its sixth drug interception this year, say the Royal Navy.
This latest operation brings the total amount of drugs seized by HMS Trent in 2024 to an astonishing £551.5 million.
The operation took place on 8 August, approximately 120 nautical miles south of the Dominican Republic.
HMS Trent, based in Portsmouth, was alerted to a suspicious speedboat believed to be smuggling cocaine. With the assistance of a US Maritime Patrol Aircraft, the warship quickly moved to intercept the vessel, deploying Royal Marines and US Coast Guard personnel onboard to carry out the operation.
Despite the smugglers’ attempt to dispose of their cargo by throwing it overboard, HMS Trent’s swift response ensured that all contraband—amounting to 506 kilograms of Class A narcotics—was successfully seized. The three individuals on the boat were handed over to United States authorities for prosecution.
Responding to the success of this operation, the UK Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard, praised the Royal Navy’s critical role in international maritime security. “This recent operation highlights the Royal Navy’s vital role in maintaining maritime security and upholding international law in the region,” Pollard said. “We are sending a clear message to drug traffickers that nowhere is safe and we will disrupt and dismantle their operations wherever they are in the world.”
HMS Trent’s Commanding Officer, Commander Tim Langford, also commended the efforts of his crew, stating, “This successful operation with our American partners demonstrates HMS Trent’s ability to support anti-trafficking operations in the Caribbean Sea. Every member of my team can be proud of another significant haul – the sixth this year.”
HMS Trent has now seized nearly 7,000 kilograms of drugs in 2024 as part of its ongoing multinational effort to combat drug trafficking. The ship works closely with the US Coast Guard and the Joint Interagency Task Force (South) to disrupt Transnational Criminal Organisations (TCOs) operating in the region.
These Rivers are proving to be a really great asset, well done to all involved.
For this kind of thing and interacting with smaller countries where sending a frigate or destroyer looks ridiculous.
I hope they get good R&R to enhance retention.
RN needs to create patrol patterns that everyone wants to be on.
Sadly you can’t solely create patrol patterns that everyone wants to be. Just ask John Lydgate. What you can do is make sure that everyone gets a fair shake at the desirable ones.
Exactly what I meant.
Trouble is the ASW experts tend to be needed in the cold dark places!
Perhaps create a TAPS exchange program with the US. Generally warmer where they keep their nuclear boats.
Agreed. When built they were they were way to expensive because their price effectively included a very large subsidiary / penalty payment to BAE Systems due to the MOD failing to meet the terms of a contractually guaranteed 10-year workload. (Cancelling the seventh and eighth T45’s in 2008 was a typical MOD pennywise pound-foolish false economy, saving a little bit immediately but paying out far far more in the longer term).
But in service the B2 Rivers have been absolutely vital in providing a presence in waters that no longer see a RN escort for a years at a time. If, as widely expected, the Type 32 project is cancelled next year in the defence review, serious consideration deserves to be given to ordering some Batch 3 River OPVs from Babcock. The Batch 1’s are aging and need replacement, and Babcock Rosyth needs a new multi-ship order if it is to stay in the shipbuilding business after 2030.
Would the US MQ8c be a good fit with some sort of retractable hanger ?
Hangers don’t do well on ships really.
I think it would be worth a try, specifically in the Caribbean, flown from HMS Medway, when it gets back. I’m not sure that a hangar would be necessary; the ship rotates crew every two or three weeks and can rotate the rotary at the same time, ensuring that typically only very basic on-ship maintenance would be necessary — and if it’s occasionally unavailable, that’s better than never there at all.
I see this hanger issue popping up on a few sites in regards to these ships but normally when Wildcat or Merlin is mentioned.
The MQ8 is a fair bit smaller than Wildcat and a lot lighter, it just seems like a good fit given it’s specs and 12 hr endurance, perfect for this drug busting work.
Just my thoughts that a telescopic hanger would give shelter in rougher conditions.
Unfortunately MQ8 is a bit long, but something like a S-100 could be housed in a TEU container (the B2’s have space for two of those set aside). Would require virtually no modifications to the B2’s, just one ISO container for flying operating and another as a hangar.
I’m only going by the fact that these B2’s can operate a Merlin which is very much larger than a Wildcat which is a fair bit bigger than the MQ8C, I’m no Engineer and as you well know, I’m not from a navy background, just a keen observer of most things military.
It just seems to me that an AV of this type and dimensions would give these ships another dimension.
Leander’s and Wasp’s spring to mind.
They can lilypad a Merlin. As far as I know they’ve never operated anything larger than a Wildcat. HMS Trent has had a Wildcat working off it for at least a couple of weeks in a test.
That’s good to know because I really did wonder about the Merlin capability being as these ships are rather small.
I remember when they were ordered and the whole build and always wondered why a Merlin would need to be operated. They be bleddy oooge !
At the point, to justify a range of cuts, everything was advertised as Chinook/Merlin compatible.
Thanks SB, I’m not sure but I would bet that those Merlin Pilots would be like ” Bugger that” !
A video was released of a Merlin landing on HMS Medway a few years ago. I believe it was a HC4 in the Caribbean, probably cross-decked from Argus — a little before the hurricane season.
Yes, you are correct, the point I was making was more that an MQ8 won’t fit into a TEU rather than the flight deck. So MQ8 would need modification to the ship if you wanted it to stay aboard for any length of time, but a S-100 wouldn’t?
Thanks, I thought I was being a bit Naive for a bit, I’m no expert on these things.
Yes, Perigrine would be the obvious choice. Unforunately it’s stupidly expensive at the moment being purched “as a service”. MQ-8C is being made redundant from the USN and we could ask the US nicely for a few to trial in the Caribbean. It’s in their interest to have them working in their own back yard in a multinational operation they host. We might get them ($25m UAVs) on the cheap or even free.
It would also accelerate our own understanding of a CONOPS for our future Proteus drone, which is in the same class as the Fire Scouts.
Hello Jon, I was looking up the MQ8C version earlier and thought it was very much still a thing and actually replacing the previous versions , that’s why I mentioned the latest C version.
Sorry, I must have read a misleading article.
They will be operated until the end of this year, but full sundown on MQ-8C is 2026. The excuse is that they can get the same effect for a fraction of the price. However they are fitted out for the wrong capability because of the failure of the LCSs. The USN also has enough manned helicopters and we don’t.
The best place for the USN to operate Fire Scout from would be the Constellation class. Delays mean there won’t be any frigates in operation this decade.
Yeah, I mean if I had to, ironically, put money on it, I’d suspect the reason is there simply isn’t funding for buying some rotary drones just for the B2’s. Which is a shame.
Surely HMS Trent is normally based in Gibraltar not Portsmouth, although currently forward deployed to the Carribean. The “Portsmouth-based” description comes from the RN’s announcement, but how can Portsmouth be the base if the B2 Rivers are never there? What defines a ships operating base?
I believe they are Forward based to various ports but the R1’s do seem to be based at Portsmouth, there is at least one there now.
The R1s are.
As I thought. Are you enjoying your Bank Holiday ? you were a little tired last time we spoke. Must be a pain having to go to work !
Nice and quiet to the extent I’m posting here.
It is!
It’s nice to still be able to post here, I did have my doubts after so many comments were deleted yesterday. A “Genetically Engineered” Sh-t storm was directly aimed in my direction and the storm arrived early in the morning, some horrendous stuff was sent my way, I feared for my life at one point. Luckily it all fizzled out though. 😎
Yes, I thought that odd too.
Good footage on the Sunday Telegraph today.👍
Just watched it on MSN. Thanks, I don’t normally believe anything that I see on MSN but some stuff does seem genuine.
All well and good but it won’t make any difference to anything, for every shipment that’s intercepted many more get through, the only way of seriously reducing drug use is to rigorously enforce the laws against drug use/possession, if people were genuinely going to get a harsh prison sentence for such, demand would drastically be reduced.
I said that very thing only a couple of days ago, This is a war that will never be won, where there is a craving, there will always be a supply, where there is a demand, there will always be a supplier, where there is a ready supply of customers, there will always be someone to exploit them.
Yes, during my misspent youth I used to be a very regular cannabis user, I knew if I got caught with/using the drug there wouldn’t be any consequences, if however during my cannabis use days I went on holiday to Dubai for example I wouldn’t go within a mile of a split because I’d be thrown into prison.
Ha… A miss spent youth is a healthy sign that you actually lived life to the full back then, I doff my hat to you and your experiences at the time. most of my youth was spent chasing Girls, Riding Motorbikes and trying to be cool.
Retired 5 years back but still feel like an 18 year old.
Thinking about taking up Wine tasting at the moment, just a bit worried that I might turn in to a key board Warrior though as I see just how bad some become on here. ! 🙄
I can completely relate about your experiences of chasing girls ( in my case failing far more often than not) and trying to be cool, in my 40s now so really don’t care about such things, if you’re thinking about taking up wine tasting then do it, don’t worry about turning into a keyboard warrior, it’s modern life, we are all one at some point.
Christ mate, You are just a nipper , I wish I was 40 again ! Good on you and enjoy every moment as it all rushes past rather quickly.
It’s 550million£ that won’t go to funding terrorism.
True, but the cartels account for some shipments being stopped, in the grand scheme of things it won’t make one iota of difference.
It’s enough to buy a Frigate.
In it makes a difference.
I always liken this to the Elizabethan Pirates heading to the same hunting grounds looking for French and Spanish riches. Drake, Raleigh, Frobisher and Davis would have all been multi billionaires today !
They are, they just hide from the limelight and focus on land rather than sea operations.
I’ve always wondered when the RN carry out these multi-million dollar cocaine busts why the drugs are destroyed to prevent them entering the illegal drug trade. Surely there is a legitimate, legal market for highly refined narcotics from pharmaceutical companies who would pay market rates to the UK government for this product?
That’s the way to go- finance enough for 2 or 3 new River3 class.
Sadly we don’t flog the impounded goods, so we don’t make the money.
Aren’t there genuine medicinal uses for some of the things we are seizing? If we could funnel the base product into general medical industries for refining into medical grade products then in theory what hurts them helps us…
You can’t use things in pharmaceuticals that you can’t trace back to origin.
Can you imagine the nightmares if any of it was contaminated?
Hence the ‘refining’ into medical grade product. Perhaps there is even a new industry in it for cleaning up illicit narcotics and turning them into something actually useful.
Getting this stuff off the street shouldn’t necessarily be the end of the story if we can make something better from that initial win. Don’t ask me what though chemistry was never my thing.
Thing is, as a former research chemist, cleaning up stuff made in a slightly random way in a jungle lab could be really hard.
The solvents they will have used would be industrial and not pharmaceutical grade etc so lots of rubbish to get rid of then it needs to be tested and certified. However, some contaminants simply can’t be removed and if they are hazardous the whole lot has to be disposed of.
It does really make you wonder just why so many take all this stuff given all the toxic and hazardous additives, not to mention the actual substance itself, Happy to say I’ve never been anywhere near any drugs at all, just a few medical ones. It’s so sad to see so many lives ruined though.
Because (in the case of Cocaine) it makes you feel great and as an upper increases your productivity and energy levels while combating tiredness. So many people use it to keep partying for multiple days at a time or (in high paced work environments) to improve their workplace performance. Hence it’s association with the world of finance.
Well yes and no. There’s genuine medical uses for Opiates, but you can’t make Morphine out of Heroin for example (you make Morphine out of Opium and then Heroin out of Morphine), so it’s not like we could be manufacturing morphine out of busted drugs (AFAIK the main medicinal use of Heroin is Palliative care, but as others pointed out you can’t be sure of what it’s been cut with, so processing is going to be incredibly difficult, and probably would have to be different for every bust).
BUT
All of that is MOOT because while Opium has some medical uses as an Analgesia, Cocaine does not. (Or at least no recognised uses in British Medicine that I’m aware off, I know they used to use it as a cure all tonic in the late 1800’s… Cocaine Cola anyone?)
I find it hard to believe as potent a drug as cocaine has no legitimate medical use. I think it’s probably like cannabis, where any recognition has been strongly discouraged because of the stigma of its recreational use. Also, if it’s a known drug, there no IP, so who would fight for it?
Medicines are supposed to taste horrible. No pain, no gain. The first thing done to make cannabis medically acceptable in this country was to remove any enjoyable side effects. It’s Puritanism gone mad! It also gives a new, hence patentable, formula.
BTW a very quick search on the Internet suggest cocaine is used medically as a local anaesthetic, a vasoconstrictor and in diagnostics. Please note, I’m not advocating its use (nor that of any illegal drug), but it does have some uses.
Potency does not equate to usefulness. And I’m guessing you didn’t bother reading the bit in parentheses at the end of my post? Anyway, well parroted from Google, but especially the “diagnostics” bit is, even in America, which has much laxer medical saftey rules than we do, historical and not current medical practice, for good reason.
We do not avoid using cocaine becuase it’s “not horrible” we do not use cocaine because it’s a highly addictive substance whose risks do not outweigh the benefits (again, unlike Morphine). It’s not puritanim gone mad, it’s called patient care, and something we, with very good reason take very seriously.
FYI just to give you the benefit of the doubt I got my copy of the BNF (admittedly it’s slightly old, the 21 edition) and checked for Cocaine in it. Heroin, Morphine, Opiates, yes, Cocaine, no.