Crew members form U.S. Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) 111 and British Royal Navy team embarked aboard HMS Trent (P244) interdicts a semi-submersible drug smuggling vessel in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea, Aug. 26, 2024. Three suspected smugglers and 1,239 pounds of illegal narcotics from this interdiction were transferred to federal custody for prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice. (Courtesy image from United Kingdom Royal Navy)

Below is a story from NORTHCOM’s online magazine, “The Watch.” HMS Trent is roughly equivalent to a Medium Endurance Cutter and was operating with a US Coast Guard LEDET on board. You may note that the incident in the photo above occurred after the incident noted in the Watch article. It was actually the eighth intercept by HMS Trent.

THE WATCH STAFF

A U.K. Royal Navy vessel conducted the sixth drug seizure in its 2024 deployment to the Caribbean, confiscating $729 million in illegal drugs. The HMS Trent, a River-class off-shore patrol vessel, has been deployed to the Caribbean to curtail illegal trafficking in migrants, drugs, guns and other contraband as the instability in Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela has worsened. The ship’s mission is to increase security in the region, including overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“This recent operation highlights the Royal Navy’s vital role in maintaining maritime security and upholding international law in the region,” Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard said in a Royal Navy news release. “We are sending a clear message to drug traffickers that nowhere is safe and we will disrupt and dismantle their operations wherever they are in the world.”

A recent bust occurred on August 8, 2024, after the Trent was alerted to suspected smugglers in a speedboat about 120 nautical miles south of the Dominican Republic. A U.S. maritime patrol aircraft assisted in tracking the fleeing boat until Royal Marines and U.S. Coast Guard personnel aboard the Trent subdued the craft. The smugglers threw 506 kilograms of cocaine overboard, but all the contraband was recovered along with three men who were turned over to U.S. authorities. “Every member of my team can be proud of another significant haul — the sixth this year,” said Tim Langford, HMS Trent commander.

The Trent’s 2024 deployment included seizures of 6,995 kilograms of drugs as part of a multinational cooperative effort with the Coast Guard and the Joint Interagency Task Force (South). “These successful interceptions disrupt Transnational Criminal Organisations and underscore the Royal Navy’s vital role in maintaining maritime security and upholding international law both at home and abroad,” the release stated. “The ship continues to patrol the Caribbean as a reassuring presence to British Overseas Territories during hurricane season (from June to November) and to stem the flow of illegal cargo through the region.”

The Trent replaced the HMS Dauntless, which seized more than $250 million of cocaine in the region in 2023. Last year, the Trent sailed to the Gulf of Guinea to train with African allies, aiding the fight against maritime crime, including piracy and armed robbery, according to Naval-Intelligence.com, a naval affairs news site. The African deployment included the exercise Grand Africa Nemo (GANO), a multinational exercise that includes nations within the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa and international countries such as the U.S. and France. The focus of GANO was to test and develop African nations’ responses to maritime security threats such as piracy and drug smuggling, according to the website.