<a href=www.thescotsman.co.uk>thescotsman.co.uk Sat 10 May 2003

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN THE drug smugglers were 4,500 miles into their voyage across the Atlantic from Colombia, making good progress at a speed of 20 knots , when it became clear that their plan had gone horribly wrong.

Packed into every available space on their high-speed vessel, a former German motor torpedo boat dating from the Second World War, was 3.6 tonnes of cocaine. On the streets of mainland Europe and the UK, it would have been worth £250 million, more than enough to compensate for the discomforts of the trip.

But instead of a clear run to the Spanish coast, a mere 420 miles away, they found their way blocked by the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary supply ship Wave Knight.

As they looked closer, they could make out the small rigid inflatables, launched by the British ships, bouncing across the waves towards them. Getting closer by the second, each one was packed with heavily armed boarding parties. Above the waves, two Lynx helicopters, which had taken off from the decks of the ships, were swooping towards them.

They quickly realised that the situation was hopeless. Switching off their engine, they waited for the boarding parties to arrive. They did not have to wait long.

Within moments, the helicopters were overhead, ropes dropping on to the deck of the 140ft-long craft and armed men swarming down them. Then the inflatables were alongside, and more men poured on to the boat .

Among them were British and Spanish customs officers, who had helped to co-ordinate the carefully-planned operation. As one naval source observed later, while they couldn’t comment on how they knew the boat would be where it was, they would have had to be very lucky simply to stumble across such a small boat in such a large ocean.

What the boarding party found was the largest cocaine haul ever recovered in European waters. Its seizure brought to £1.5 billion the running total of drugs seized by the Royal Navy in the last five years.

The smugglers’ boat, the ‘Cork’, had collected the drugs in Colombia, hoping to deliver them to the European mainland, where about one fifth of the cargo was destined for the UK. There was so much cocaine on board that some of the crew were sleeping on the bridge because their bunks were so full. They were only 16 hours from their destination when the navy swooped.

The commanding officer of the Cumberland, Captain Mike Mansergh, was understandably delighted with the success of Thursday’s operation.

"Both ships - and we had two naval helicopters with us - managed to converge on the vessel and, to its great surprise, we were suddenly there in the middle of the Atlantic, so they stopped very quickly," he said.

"This enabled us to put Spanish customs officers on board the boat. They were certainly quite surprised and there was no resistance."

He added: "It was an enormous haul and we are delighted we have managed to stop that amount of cocaine entering the streets of Europe."

For the Cumberland, however, such an operation was hardly something new. It had only just returned from operational duties in the Gulf, where it had carried out more than 100 similar boardings of vessels suspected of breaking UN embargoes on trade with Iraq.

The captain of the Honduras-registered Cork is from the Dominican Republic and the crew members are Greek, Customs said. All eight men aboard the high-speed boat were arrested by Spanish customs officers.

The Cumberland was yesterday escorting the smugglers’ vessel to Spain, where they would be able to establish precisely how much cocaine had been seized.

NAVAL VICTORIES FIGHTING DRUGS

THE largest seizure of drugs by the Royal Navy was in 1999, when armed sailors from HMS Marlborough recovered cocaine worth £1 billion in two operations four days apart.

Four tonnes of cocaine was recovered from the Panamanian-registered freighter MV China Breeze in the Caribbean and another four tonnes were found on the Panamanian freighter MV Castor. Later the same year, the Royal Navy recovered two tonnes of cocaine valued at £135 million from the Panama-registered cargo ship MV Adriatik in an operation in the Caribbean, north of Venezuela.

Last year, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Grafton seized 750 kg of cocaine worth an estimated £100 million from a fishing boat in the Caribbean after a tip off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Yesterday’s seizure was the second-largest by Spanish Customs. In July 1999, 7.6 tonnes of cocaine was seized aboard a freighter.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

US Ambassador Charles Shapiro has met Executive Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and Anti-Drugs Czaress, Mildred Camero to discuss the eradication of poppy feels in Venezuela's western Perija mountain range (Zulia). 

Shapiro says Camero has brought him about cultivation in the area and he praised the judge's work in the  war on drugs. 

Camero reports that her office (Conacuid)  is undertaking intelligence work in the region to assess the situation in the poppy fields. 

Crop-dusting was discontinued last year due to Venezuela's political situation and government precaution to pre-empt any use of Venezuelan Air Force planes for coup attempts and other subversive activities. 

Camero insists that Conacuid had concerted the meeting with the US Ambassador to coordinate joint activities in the war on drugs in border areas.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Thursday, May 08, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Colombian Air Force has  intercepted a Venezuelan plane, as it flew over the Colombian island of San Andres off the Panamanian coast ... Colombian Air Force commander, General Hector Fabio Velasco reports that the plane left Venezuela at 8.25 p.m. and was picked up on radar at 10.25. 

Three Colombian citizens were aboard the Russian-made light plane YV-1052-CP, which Velasco says, was flown on a provisional license by an unauthorized pilot. 

A Colombian Air Force jet forced the plane to return with it and land at the Ernesto Cortez Air Force Base in Barranquilla. The three men are being interrogated in connection with narco-trafficking and drug runs.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 20, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuela's Anti-Drugs Office (Conacuid) says it needs 8.3 billion bolivares to carry through its narcotics control plan 2002-2007, revolving around eradication of poppy field cultivations and illegal trafficking and transshipment of drugs inside Venezuela. 

In a breakdown a Conacuid document outlines 46 projects and programs to help reduce supply and demand and push Venezuela into the international arena of the war on drugs. 

4.1 billion bolivares will go to cutting supply by seizures at road checkpoints, airports, seaports etc. and crop dusting organized by the Armed Force Unified Command (Cufan). 

3.2 billion will go towards cutting demand through prevention campaigns aimed at the family, and rehabilitation of addicts. 

684 million will help create the Venezuelan Narcotics Observatory (OVD) attached to Conacuid to collect, collate, analyze data for public use to help draw up policies and strategies to reduce supply and demand. 

Another 180 million will be used to increase international cooperation efforts, especially technical and financial assistance by multilateral organizations, as well as strengthening mechanisms of exchange of information and legal collaboration.

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuela's Anti-Drugs Czaress, Judge Mildred Camero has come out against a European suggestion to legalize certain kinds of drugs. Speaking at the 46th United Nations (UN) Drugs Commission, Camero says the Andean community is also against legalizing drugs. 

"We are seeing some European countries seeking an easy solution probably because of failure to reduce the demand for drugs ... at the same time, they are demanding that we (producing and transit countries) make a greater effort to eradicate poppy fields ... they have placed norms and demands on us to combat production and traffic."  

It is easy to theorize on decriminalizing drugs, Camero contends, but it is a utopia ... "as a judge I have seen what practical effects drugs have in breaking up the family." 

The Judge says Venezuela has proposed the creation of an international network to exchange information on money-laundering. "In view of the success we have had in creating a national network of money laundering information, we would like to see an international network set up."

Venezuelan Foreign Policy discuss the relative merits of Venezuela's foreign policy and its effects

Our editorial statement reads: VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable  right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is pro-democracy and pro-Venezuela ... which some may wrongly interpret as anti-American. --  Roy S. Carson, Editor/Publisher  Editor@VHeadline.com