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The Royal Navy has intercepted its first-ever “narco sub” – filled with £160m ($208M) worth of cocaine. HMS Trent seized the vessel in the Caribbean Sea. In eight drugs busts in seven months, the Portsmouth-based patrol ship has stopped nearly £750m ($979M) of narcotics reaching the streets of the UK in eight months. Trent’s latest operation, alongside the US Coast Guard and a US Maritime Patrol Aircraft, was the first “narco-sub” the Royal Navy has ever intercepted. The ship’s boarding team – comprising US Coast Guard personnel, Royal Marines from 47 Commando and specialist sailors – clambered aboard the semi-submersed...

The two Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia last week were helping seize Iranian weapons bound for the Houthis, the US said in a statement on Tuesday. The Navy SEALs carried out a "complex boarding" of a dhow, operating out of the USS Lewis B. Puller and assisted by helicopters and unmanned aerial drones, CENTCOM said. (excerpt) Among what was seized were propulsion, guidance, and warheads for medium-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as air-defense-associated components, it said. (excerpt) The Associated Press earlier reported, citing unnamed US officials, that the pair were climbing...

Two Navy Seals are missing after falling into the water off the coast of Somalia while trying to board a vessel in the nighttime, officials said. The two Seals, whose names were not publicly released, were climbing up a vessel in the Gulf of Aden when they got knocked off by waves. Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken, the next jumps in after them. The men were on an interdiction mission — where members intercept weapons on ships that are bound for Houthi-controlled Yemen — when the waves overtook them, the officials said, according to reports. The officials,...

Malaysian police were investigating a company controlled by a son of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over allegations that it was involved in supplying parts for Libya's nuclear weapons programme. National police chief Bakri Omar said in a statement issued to "clarify several questions and confusion" that the probe was sparked by information provided last November by US and British intelligence services. The CIA and MI6 told Malaysia's special branch that the company, Scomi Precision Engineering (Scope), was supplying centrifuge components made in Malaysia for Libya's uranium-enrichment program. Scope is a unit of listed oil and gas firm Scomi Group,...

In one of many largest drug busts in U.S. historical past, federal authorities in Philadelphia seized practically 20 tons of cocaine—worth about $1 billion— last month from a ship owned by JP Morgan’s asset management arm. JP Morgan didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Forbes. U.S. Lawyer William McSwain mentioned in a tweet that the sheer quantity of cocaine may have killed “hundreds of thousands” of individuals. A federal criminal investigation into the alleged smuggling working is ongoing. “This is among the largest drug seizures in the United States historical past. This quantity of cocaine may kill...

Crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter Munro board a self-propelled semi-submersible that was suspected of being a drug-smuggling vessel worth an estimated $232 million dollars

U.S. Seeks U.N. Consent to Interdict North Korean Ships By DAVID E. SANGER SEPT. 6, 2017 WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday circulated a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council that would effectively empower the United States Navy and Air Force to interdict North Korean ships at sea, inspect them to determine whether they are carrying weapons material or fuel into the country, and use “all necessary measures” to enforce compliance. The language is included in a remarkably broad draft that would ban the shipment of all crude oil, refined petroleum and natural gas to North Korea,...

In July, the Russian-manned cargo ship the Arctic Sea disappeared on its way to take timber from Finland to Algeria, sparking reports of the first incident of piracy in European waters since the days of the buccaneers. Experts and observers weighed in with their theories: the ship had been snatched in a commercial dispute; it was being used to run drugs; it was carrying something more precious — or dangerous — than timber. Since then, the Russian navy has found the ship, and the alleged hijackers who boarded it on July 24 have been charged with kidnapping and piracy. The...

PARIS (AP) - French customs officers are inspecting a North Korean ship at an Indian Ocean island off the coast of Africa as part of U.N. sanctions prompted by the communist nation's nuclear test, but they found nothing illegal so far, officials said Thursday. It was the first time a country was known to have stopped a North Korean vessel under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 authorizing searches as part of the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its nuclear test. Since the resolution was passed Oct. 14, at least four other North Korean vessels have been stopped, but the countries...

After being caught trying to smuggle drugs into Australia the Pong Su was sunk by two 2000-pound (900 kg) laser-guided bombs dropped from an RAAF F-111 aircraft. The deliberate destruction of the freighter was said to deliver a strong message to international drug smuggling rings that the Australian Federal Government would take all measures necessary to stop illegal drug importation.

One of the aspects of the Michael Vick dog fighting investigation that hasn't gotten much attention is how it all started. So let's explain: It all started with a dog named Troy. Troy is a Dutch shepherd (that's a Dutch shepherd in the photo, but it's not Troy) who joined the police department in Hampton, Va., last year. During a patrol outside a Hampton nightclub in April, Troy alerted his handler that he smelled drugs in the trunk of a car. Police found marijuana in the car, which turned out to belong to Vick's cousin, Davon Boddie. After arresting Boddie,...

A man who was stopped for speeding was arrested after three gallons of the "date-rape drug" GHB were found in his car, enough for 20,000 doses, authorities said. Daniel Gertz, 37, of Los Angeles, was taken into custody on multiple felony charges including possession and transportation of a narcotic for sale, according to the California Highway Patrol. GHB, which stands for gamma-hydroxybutyrate, creates a euphoric, drunken feeling in low doses and can knock people out in higher amounts. Authorities said Gertz was transporting the drug to a party in San Francisco when he was stopped Wednesday for driving 88 mph...

A submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine was seized off the Guatemalan coast, U.S. officials said. Four suspected smugglers were operating the self-propelled, semi-submersible vessel when it was located and seized on Sunday evening by officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, the Border Patrol said in a news release Wednesday. When the suspects realized they had been spotted by drug-surveillance aircraft patrolling the eastern Pacific, they scuttled the vessel but were unable to escape. Coast Guard officials, guided by the reconnaissance plane, intercepted the vessel...

Fifteen British sailors and Marines are being held by Iranian forces, says the Ministry of Defence. More follows...

ETAJIMA ? The only special squad of the Maritime Self-Defense Force has engaged in secret drills to prepare for Japan's possible inspections of North Korea-related ships under a U.N. Security Council resolution following Pyongyang's nuclear test last month, Kyodo News learned Thursday. The MSDF is carrying out the drills every day at its base in Etajima, a Seto Inland Sea island in Hiroshima Prefecture even though the Japanese government has yet to decide its position on the issue due to legal sensitivities. The government has left various questions unanswered, such as whether it can apply the law on Japan's...

The good news about nuclear destruction Posted: August 24, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern By Shane Connor What possible good news could there ever be about nuclear destruction coming to America, whether it is dirty bombs, terrorist nukes or ICBMs from afar? In a word, they are all survivable for the vast majority of American families, if they know what to do beforehand and have made even the most modest preparations. Tragically, though, most Americans today won't give much credence to this good news, much less seek out such vital life-saving instruction, as they have been jaded by our culture's pervasive myths...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2005 – Iraqi and coalition officials are doing their best to halt shipments of bomb-making materials, expertise and individuals into Iraq, DoD officials said in a Pentagon news conference today. The officials were asked about British Prime Minister Tony Blair's assertion that Iran and Hezbollah are providing materials used to attack coalition targets and destabilize Iraq. Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, deputy operations chief on the Joint Staff, said Iraqi security forces had intercepted a shipment of devices from Iran into Iraq about a month ago. "It is principally, as we would expect, an Iraqi issue to...

(via North KoreaZone) The United States and its allies have intercepted two deliveries of materials useful in making nuclear and chemical weapons by North Korea, the State Department said Tuesday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made the disclosure in remarks to reporters, citing 11 successful efforts in the past nine months by the United States and its allies in an anti-proliferation campaign, called the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). `I have cited two cases involving North Korea. I¡¯ve cited several cases involving countries of proliferation concern, including Iran,¡¯¡¯ Boucher said in a press briefing. ``In addition, we worked to impede the...

The Bush administration, facing a series of recent provocations from North Korea, is debating a plan to seek a United Nations resolution empowering all nations to intercept shipments in or out of the country that may contain nuclear materials or components, say senior administration officials and diplomats who have been briefed on the proposal. The resolution envisioned by a growing number of senior administration officials would amount to a quarantine of North Korea, though, so far at least, President Bush's aides are not using that word. It would enable the United States and other nations to intercept shipments in international...

AN Australian port could be attacked or a ferry hijacked by terrorists to transport weapons of mass destruction, because of gaps in the maritime border security net. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found a lack of awareness from states and the federal Government about the specific threats posed from the sea. "A determined and expert terrorist is still likely to have little difficulty in entering Australia by sea, and will probably only be defeated by advance intelligence of his movements," the institute says in a report titled Future unknown: the terrorist threat to Australian maritime security. "We have high...