BRITISH NAVAL FORCES say they have seized more than half-tonne of cocaine worth £20 million (about $81.4 million), after intercepting a small fishing boat travelling in Caribbean waters this week.

The Navy said the Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing ship RFA Largs Bay, in its first ever operational patrol, encountered the Venezuela-registered boat carrying the illicit cargo about 390 miles north-east of Barbados.

"As the naval vessel approached the fishing boat, the air crew witnessed the fishermen hastily dumping their dubious cargo into the sea," the Navy said in a statement.

"Despite the bales of cocaine being weighted and the difficult twilight conditions, the crew managed to recover some 575 kilogrammes
of cocaine before being forced to leave as darkness approached. There was also a need to catch up with the suspect vessel as it attempted a sharp getaway," it added.

It said the position of the dumped bales was marked as night approached and the crew simultaneously managed to track the fleeing smugglers.

British officials said the vessel was yesterday escorting the Venezuelan fishing boat and her crew to a rendezvous with a Venezuelan naval vessel for hand-over and due process.

Commanding officer of RFA Largs Bay, Captain Ian Johnson, described the haul as a significant blow to the drug cartels.

Recently the United States Coast Guard said cocaine traffickers seemed to be shifting from the Caribbean to the Pacific.

"We have forced them to adapt to routes that are dangerous and are expensive," said Coast Guard Commander Bob Watts in announcing the record annual cocaine seizures worth more than US$4.7 billion ($9.4 billion).
(CMC)