Drug money linked to terrorists

By Graham Davis

Guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal during her recent visit to Sydney.

There is an assumption some the proceeds of drugs being smuggled from the Middle East are financing the al Qa’eda terrorist organisation, CAPT Patrick Allen, the Commanding Officer of the guided missile cruiser, USS Port Royal, said in Sydney recently.

But thanks to CAPT Allen and his ship’s company there are 54 bags of hashish worth $US11 million which will not be entering the bodies of users.

Operating in The Gulf and working from an intelligence report, Port Royal sent out her two RHIBs to halt a dhow.

“In the refrigeration hold we found the hashish frozen amongst foodstuffs including potatoes,” the ship’s Public Affairs Officer, LTJG Jonathon Fagins, told Navy News.

He said for a night and a day the ice was chipped away revealing 54 bags of hashish ranging in weight from 50 to 100 pounds.

Cocaine was also recovered.

The cocaine was the personal property of crew members.

LTJG Fagins said Port Royal arrested the dhow’s crew of 15 handing it over to the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu for further processing.

The dhow boarding was one of more than two dozen boardings carried out by Port Royal during her patrol duties in The Gulf.

“There is an assumption drugs are financing al Qa’eda,” CAPT Allen said.

The Ticonderoga Aegis class cruiser of 9,590 tonnes is based in Pearl Harbour.

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