US Navy seizes $4 million worth of heroin in Arabian Sea

DUBAI – United States navy vessels seized 385 kilograms (849 pounds) of heroin successful the Arabian Sea worthy immoderate $4 million, successful a large bust by the planetary maritime cognition successful the region, officials said Thursday.

The USS Tempest and USS Typhoon seized the drugs hidden aboard a stateless sportfishing vas plying Mideast waters, the planetary task unit said successful a statement. The seizure took spot connected Monday.

The Navy said the sportfishing vas apt came from Iran. All 9 unit members identified themselves arsenic Iranian nationals, according to Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet.

He did not elaborate connected who manufactured the drugs oregon their eventual destination.

As the task unit ramps up determination patrols, it has confiscated amerciable drugs worthy implicit $193 cardinal during operations astatine oversea this twelvemonth — much than the magnitude of drugs seized successful the past 4 years combined, its connection said.

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Heroin is trafficked to the Middle East and adjacent Europe by onshore from Iran and Afghanistan done well-worn onshore routes successful the Balkans, Southern Caucasus mountains oregon Saudi Arabia, according to past year's U.N. Global Synthetic Drugs Assessment. Smugglers from Iran person progressively taken to oversea to bring heroin into South Asia, the study added, with Iranian and Pakistani sailors often arrested adjacent Sri Lanka.

Iran's porous 1,923 kilometer-long (1195 mile-long) eastbound borderline with Afghanistan, the world’s largest shaper of opium, has turned it into a cardinal transit state for the illicit cause trade.

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