The Royal Netherlands Navy frigate De Zeven Provinciën returned to her home port of Den Helder today following a five-month deployment to the Caribbean Sea.
The lead ship of the De Zeven Provinciën-class frigates intercepted a total of four ships and about 1570 kilos of drugs.
Three interceptions resulted in hauling 850 kilos of cocaine and 400 kilos of marijuana. During the fourth action, smugglers threw drugs overboard and Dutch sailors managed to recover only a portion of the narcotics.
A Belgian Navy Alouette III helicopter, along with its support team, was embarked on the ship throughout the deployment which started in February 2016. Additionally, a U.S. Law Enforcement Detachment was also embarked on De Zeven Provinciën during the counter-narcotics operations.
HNLMS De Zeven Provincien is the first ship of the De Zeven Provincien-class air defence and command frigates in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN).
There are three other ships in this class, HNLMS Tromp (F803), HNLMS De Ruyter (F804), and HNLMS Evertsen (F805).