Pakistan Navy ship Yarmook seized narcotics worth more than $972 million from sailboats in the Arabian Sea, according to a statement issued on Tuesday from the naval network overseeing the operation.
The Combined Maritime Force (CMF), a naval partnership that includes the United States, said the Pakistani naval vessel intercepted two different dhow sailing boats within 48 hours last week. It was working in “direct support of Saudi-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 150” of the CMF during focused operation Al Masmak, which began on October 16.
“The crew boarded the first dhow and seized over two tons of crystal methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $822,400,000 [on] October 18. Less than 48 hours later, the crew boarded a second dhow and seized 350 kilogrammes of [crystal meth] worth $140,000,000 and 50kg of cocaine worth $10,000,000,” the CMF statement said.
The narcotics were transported back to the ship for testing to confirm the contents and subsequently disposed of, the statement added.
The intercepted vessels were “identified as having no nationality”, it said without indicating where they had originated.
It was “one of the most successful narcotics seizures for CMF,” Royal Saudi Naval Forces Commodore Fahad Aljoiad, commander of the CMF taskforce carrying out the operation, was quoted as saying.
“The success of this focused operation highlights the importance of the multi-national collaboration,” he further stated.
The US Central Command in a post on X congratulated the CMF, which includes 47 countries’ navies and patrols more than three million square miles of sea, including some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to disrupt the smuggling of drugs and weapons.
