Sailors aboard the Royal Australian Navy’s Canberra-class landing helicopter dock HMAS Adelaide helped the Australian Border Force seize 186 kilograms of cocaine and arrest ten men in a counter drug operation last week.
HMAS Adelaide intercepted a vessel carrying $60.45 million worth of cocaine and escorted it into the port of Hobart.
ADF personnel boarded the vessel in the Southern Ocean off Tasmania detaining the crew. Ten foreign nationals were arrested.
It took the Tasmania Police and federal authorities, including the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police, several days to thoroughly examine the vessel.
They located approximately 186kgs of the suspicious substance, which had been compressed into bricks and wrapped in plastic. Forensic tests has indicated the substance was cocaine.
The Australian Border Force said an investigation into the origin and destination of the drugs was continuing, noting that it was unlikely that a criminal venture of this nature would target the small Tasmanian market.