Sydney -
An Australian warship has seized heroin with an estimated street value of $123 million off the coast of Somalia, the defence department said on Thursday.
The 449kg haul was found on a dhow, a type of sailing vessel, intercepted by HMAS Darwin while patrolling the Indian Ocean 40 nautical miles off Somalia's east coast.
The ship's commander Terry Morrison said the seizure “removed a major source of funding for terrorist and criminal networks which included al-Qaeda, the Taliban and al-Shabaab”.
The drugs were hidden in 20 bags, each weighing between 20kg and 25kg.
HMAS Darwin is part of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a naval partnership involving 30 nations that patrols 2.5 million square miles of international waters.
The Australian ship enforces maritime security with a focus on terrorist activity in the Middle East and Indian Ocean regions as part of the British-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, which operates under the CMF.
The bust, the CMF's seventh “significant seizure” this year, came three weeks after the Australian and British navies jointly found 1 032kg of heroin - their largest-ever haul - on a dhow off the coast of East Africa near Kenya and Tanzania. - Sapa-AFP