Pakistan navy ship seizes drugs worth nearly $1 bn in Arabian Sea

DUBAI: A Pakistani navy ship seized narcotics worth more than $972 million from sailboats in the Arabian Sea, according to a statement 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 last week intercepted two different dhow sailing boats within 48 hours.

The crew seized several tons of crystal methamphetamine and a smaller amount of cocaine, the CMF statement said.

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,” said Royal Saudi Naval Forces Commodore Fahad Aljoiad, commander of the CMF taskforce carrying out the operation.

The US Central Command in a post on X congratulated the CMF, which includes 47 countries’ navies and patrols more than 3 million square miles of sea including some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes to disrupt the smuggling of drugs and weapons.