Lt. Thomas Dawe, right, of the HMAS Warramunga, passes a package of narcotics to Able Seaman Corey Bartlett as part of an illicit cargo seizure during a narcotics interdiction operation.

While conducting operations for U.S.-led Combined Task Force 150, a Royal Australian Navy frigate seized about 8 tons of hashish worth about $400 million from a vessel, officials said Wednesday.

A Seahawk helicopter flying off the HMAS Warramunga spotted two suspicious boats in the Arabian Sea while conducting surveillance operations on Saturday and Sunday. A team from Warramunga then boarded the vessels and discovered the drugs below the deck of one of the boats, the Australian navy said Wednesday.

The drugs were transferred to the Warramunga to be disposed of.

Since deploying in November 2017, Warramunga has seized 19.5 tons of hashish and 1.5 tons of heroin, worth more than $1.11 billion, officials said.

“This has been a high tempo deployment for HMAS Warramunga but we have been fortunate in seeing significant quantities of narcotics not reach their final destination as a result of the efforts of the crew and the CTF 150 team,” Warramunga’s commanding officer Cmdr. Dugald Clelland said in a statement.

Australia is part of the multinational CTF 150, one of three task forces within the U.S.-led combined maritime forces. CTF 150 focuses on promoting maritime security to counter terrorism and illegal activity.

The Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces, which operates in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, has seized 12,700 kilograms of heroin and 53,000 kilograms of hashish since 2012.

behnke.jason@stripes.com

Twitter: @JasonFromSD

