5th Fleet Focus: Navy Activity Update

The BBC is reporting on the activities of the Royal Navy in the Middle East. The Royal Navy has been targeting drug smugglers with other coalition forces in support of activities against the Taleban, and is apparently having a great deal of success.

Royal Navy warships have been involved in the successful seizure of 23 tonnes of illegal drugs in the Gulf.

The navy said it believed the sale of the narcotics could have been intended to help fund Taleban fighters in Afghanistan.

The Plymouth-based frigates HMS Chatham and Montrose and the Portsmouth-based destroyer HMS Edinburgh carried out the interceptions over five months.

Drugs seized included hashish, cocaine, opiates and amphetamines.

The article goes on to note the drugs seizures were a joint operation with Pakistani, French and Canadian forces. Not sure why the BBC doesn't mention the US Navy, but in other press reporting of the story apparently Commodore Keith Winstanley did.

The illegal trade of drugs is funding the Taleban, so any impact naval forces can make in curbing the illegal drug trade can translate into impact on the ground in Afghanistan. The BBC article is very limited in details, so we'll fill in the gaps.

The revelation regarding naval forces intercepting illegal drugs extends beyond the 23 tons seized by the Royal Navy, in fact it was reported to be 70 tons total for all coalition forces. The operations have been observing the drugs smuggled out of Afghanistan into Iran, which are then sent down into Iranian ports where the drugs are loaded on small boats, and delivered to other ships at sea for transport to other ports, or other places including the west.

While some media sources have tried to link the Taleban's illegal drug smuggling activity to the regime in Iran, that is very unlikely. Iran has a big drug problem, and violence on the Afghanistan border is up, with several border guards reportedly killed in shootouts along the Afghanistan border over the last several months. While it is true the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is widely known for being one of the best smuggling organizations in the world, there are so many items blacklisted from Iran right now due to sanctions that business is booming for the IRGC without needing to smuggle illegal drugs.

If you ever hear about naval forces interdicting a dozen pallets of high tech computers bound for Iran, it is a good bet that's an IRGC smuggling operation.