THIS is the moment a British battleship seized more than £40 million worth of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea in a daring drugs bust.
Footage shows the HMS Trent closing in on a speed boat before seizing the drugs 120 nautical miles south of the Dominic Republic.
Royal Marines could be seen fishing the drugs out of the ocean before bringing three smugglers on board after the drug smugglers tried to throw the Class A narcotics overboard.
The alleged smugglers were later filmed being escorted onto HMS Trent with their hands held above their heads.
The drug traffickers were handed over to the United States authorities for prosecution.
The Royal Navy said it is the sixth drug bust made by HMS Trent in 2024.
The warship has seized close to seven tonnes of drugs worth £551.5 million from traffickers.
HMS Trent’s commanding officer Commander Tim Langford described the latest bust on August 8 as “another significant haul”.
He said: “This successful operation with our American partners demonstrates HMS Trent’s ability to support -trafficking operations in the Caribbean Sea.
“Every member of my team can be proud of another significant haul – the sixth this year.”
The HMS Trent was joined by a US maritime patrol aircraft and US Coast Guards.
Armed forces minister Luke Pollard said: “This recent operation highlights the Royal Navy’s vital role in maintaining maritime security and upholding international law in the region.
“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, which has been working closely with the US Coast Guard and the Joint Interagency Task Force (South), has now seized close to seven tonnes of drugs in 2024.
The ship is still patrolling Caribbean waters.
The ship continues to patrol the Caribbean as a reassuring presence to British Overseas Territories during hurricane season and to stem the flow of illegal cargo.
It comes shortly after Hurricane Debby washed up several packages of cocaine along the Florida shoreline at the start of August.
According to the US Border Patrol, the packages were worth £784,000 ($1 million dollars) and weighed about 70 pounds.
The packages were covered in a black rectangular sticker with a red triangle symbol on it.
Posting on X (formally Twitter), acting chief US Border Patrol agent Samual Briggs II said: “A good Samaritan discovered the drugs and contacted authorities.
He did not state where he believed the drugs originated or how long they had been in the ocean.
