Navy Seizes Boat With $11M in Hashish

The Associated Press ^ | 1/4/04

[freeperfromnj]

U.S. Navy Seizes Small Boat Carrying $11 Million Worth of Hashish Near Persian Gulf

WASHINGTON Jan. 2 — The U.S. Navy has seized another small boat carrying drugs near the Persian Gulf after interrogating smugglers with suspected links to the al-Qaida terrorist network, the military announced Friday. The boat seized on New Year's Day was the fourth drug-smuggling vessel intercepted by Americans in the past two weeks in or near the Persian Gulf. Pentagon officials say they believe all four boats, which were carrying hashish, heroin and methamphetamines, are part of a drug smuggling operation which funnels money to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

An American search of the boat, a wooden vessel called a dhow, found about 2,800 pounds of hashish with an estimated street value of $11 million, according to a statement from the Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain.

U.S. Navy ships including the USS Port Royal, USS Peleliu and USS Germantown stopped the boat Thursday in the northern Arabian Sea, said Cmdr. James Graybeal, a 5th Fleet spokesman. Searchers found the drugs Friday under blocks of ice and in hidden compartments in the vessel, he said.

Fifteen people aboard the dhow are being held by the Navy aboard the Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship which carries the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

[CWOJackson]

Way to go guys!

[Coop]

Another hit to Al Qaeda!

[Pro-Bush]

Bump!

[thoughtomator]

We should cut them off completely - and legalize. No black market, no profits to buy weapons.

[CWOJackson]

Naw, we should just start making a lot of smoking holes in the water.

[Angelus Errare]

Understand, their annual budget is between $150-200 million a year. While I have little doubt that this is going to leave them hurting for cash in the long-term, major hits like this force the network to raise or move greater quantities of cash that is easier for law enforcement to detect.

The shift from drugs also reflects the success of US anti-terrorism efforts in disrupting their financing. Now that Taylor is out of power in Liberia, they can't use his country as a base to get diamonds out of anymore.

[Coop]

You're exactly right. And not only do we force the change in money movement, but we also have captured ten of their folks. While they're probably not top-level folks, their incarceration has to be causing some serious heartburn for their higher-ups.

[Kenton]

Avast, me hearties! Do they split up the prize amongst the crew as bounty? ;)

[68skylark]

I think the dhow was a little overmatched.

The USS Peleliu:

[Angelus Errare]

I consider the hashish a more valuable catch than the cannon fodder. Guarding a drug shipment isn't exactly all that glorious an assignment for a prospective holy warrior, in all likelihood they'd much rather be in Iraq or Afghanistan or Chechnya duking it out with the kufr. The other thing to keep in mind is that this is the fourth drug bust we've had along this same route (though we have yet to learn whether these drugs are coming from the Arabian Peninsula or Iran), i.e. we've compromised their traffic line.

[Coop]

So do I, but I'm not discounting the possibility of some decent intel to be coaxed from some of them. And even in compartmental Al Qaeda, there have to be a couple of direct reports on either end getting extremely nervous.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Willy Nelson was deeply saddened.

[Destructor]

Wait 'til the potheads see this thread. Hope your wearing your asbestos long johns!

[CWOJackson]

They're too busy defending one of their "Just Say Yes" campaign threads for the moment.

[TigersEye]

2,800 pounds of hashish with an estimated street value of $11 million

That works out to about $8.77 per gram give or take a few cents. That's down quite a bit from $20-$30 p. gram in 1973. Is the WOsD's working yet?

[Snickersnee]

The sons of John Paul Jones collide with the Cheech and Chong navy!

[HELLRAISER II]

So why do you think the potheads would care about this? Hashish doesn't make it over that often anyway so the heads that you're talking about won't care anyway. Just out of curiosity do either of you drink or smoke cigarettes and if you do what will you do when the anti smoke kooks outlaw alcohol & tobacco. Don't think it's possible, just look at the start of it in New York, it's happening as we speak. What I find funny about you WOD's is that you will be on the same side of the law as the Potheads you're making fun of when they outlaw alcohol and tobbacco. They just outlawed ephederine this week, who know's what's next?

[CWOJackson]

They get testy when their in mourning.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks Coop. The 'too long to fit into an FR thread title' CENTCOM release: (^:

8 INTERROGATION OF SUSPECTED AL QAEDA AFFILIATES LEADS U.S. AND AUSTRALIAN NAVIES TO SEIZE MORE DRUGS