HMS Trent Takes Cocaine Bust Total to $725 Million

The Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Trent has made her sixth drug bust of the year in the Caribbean, bringing the total street value of her cocaine cargoes to more than $725 million. If sold at retail price, the year-to-date total haul of 7,000 kilos of cocaine would bring in enough money to buy HMS Trent four times over, with enough left to fund two years of operation and maintenance.

On August 8, HMS Trent received an alert that a speedboat carrying cocaine was operating about 120 nautical miles to the south of the Dominican Republic. Trent was carrying a team of U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement officers, as is standard practice for Caribbean drug busts, along with a complement of Royal Marines. The patrol vessel dispatched a joint boarding team to intercept the drug-running boat, with a U.S. maritime patrol aircraft flying overwatch. 

The smugglers tossed their bales of drugs over the side in an attempt to escape, but to no avail. The cargo and the suspects were captured, then handed over to the U.S. government for prosecution. In all, Trent's crew retrieved 500 kilos of cocaine during the interdiction. 

"This recent operation highlights the Royal Navy’s vital role in maintaining maritime security and upholding international law," said Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard in a statement. "We are sending a clear message to drug traffickers that nowhere is safe and we will disrupt and dismantle their operations wherever they are in the world."

Courtesy Royal Navy

Trent remains on patrol in the British Overseas Territories of the Caribbean, ready to respond to any urgent needs at the peak of hurricane season. 

HMS Trent is a 2,000-tonne River-class Batch 2 patrol vessel with a top speed of 25 knots and a crew complement of 45. At the time of construction, the acquisition cost of $170 million per hull was criticized as excessive, but it is less than a third of the price of a comparable vessel operated by an ally - the U.S. Navy's high-speed Littoral Combat Ship. The small River-class combatants operate with about one-third of an LCS' annual operating cost and have proven capable of forward-deploying for years at a time.