The Navy made a $42 million drug bust last week, stopping a small vessel even as the crew was attempting to ditch some of the illicit cargo. The seizure occurred on April 21, when the guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton intercepted a fishing boat transiting the Gulf of Oman.
Once aboard, Navy and Coast Guard service members from the USS Paul Hamilton discovered 802 kilograms of methamphetamines and 1,000 kilograms of hashish. Before being boarded, the five crewmembers on the fishing vessel – who identified themselves as Iranian nationals – attempted to throw at least 50 35-pound bags of amphetamines overboard, some of which were ultimately recovered by the Navy.
“This was outstanding work by the entire Paul Hamilton team,” Capt. Anthony Webber, commander of Task Force 55, responsible for overseeing U.S. maritime surface operations in the Middle East, said in a Navy release. “These interdictions remove illicit narcotics from the high seas and help deter destabilizing activity in regional waters.”
Since the beginning of 2023, ships operating with Combined Task Force 150, which patrols the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf of Oman and is comprised of personnel from 38 nations, have seized approximately $150 million worth of illegal narcotics.
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