The Royal Navy seizes more than £300 million worth of illicit cargo from smugglers in two historic drug busts

DRUGS worth almost £300 million have been seized in two raids by a Royal Navy warship.

The sailors and marines of HMS Trent – ​​assisted by the US Coast Guard – chased a speedboat as the crew attempted to dump almost three tonnes of Class A into the boat. Caribean Sea.

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Four were arrested and it took ten hours to find and retrieve them all drugs – worth £220.56 million.

It happened weeks after the crew of HMS Trent seized £70 million worth of cocaine.

The Navy called it a “high-octane chase under the moonlight as the smugglers attempted to unload their illegal cargo.”

It continued: “As the sun rose, Trent’s 60-strong crew scoured the ocean for the abandoned cargo, eventually retrieving 29 bales of cocaine weighing 876kg after an extensive ten-hour search across 24 square miles .”

Of this latest failure, one Marine said: “This was a challenging operation and required us to push the boats to their limits.

“Despite their best efforts to avoid us, and with our boats and ship coming towards them at high speed, the 10 meter go-fast eventually gave up the chase and we were able to come alongside and rescue members of the US Coast Guard to seize the ship.”

The officer in charge of the US Coast Guard team added: “It is one of the largest single attacks in recent history.

“To be able to recover such a large load of contraband in a 25 mile search area is unheard of and it speaks for itself of the level of skill shown by the crew of HMS Trent.”