Drugs seized in the Caribbean

Warship has coastguard team on board for police duties. Conceivable in Germany too?

How the Navy Times the USS Sioux City seized more than 20 million dollars worth of cocaine last month. The Coast Guard team on board was able to seize around 1,110 pounds of the drug from a smuggling speedboat in the Caribbean on 19 September.

The Sioux City and a ship from the Dominican Republic spotted a "very fast boat" that day, whereupon the LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) Sioux City deployed a speedboat and chased after the smugglers. The smugglers were quickly brought under control, the US Navy reported this week.

Sioux City is deployed to the US 4th Fleet as part of an ongoing mission to interdict drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The LCS were once built as a celebrated design of the future, but failed to live up to the Navy's expectations. With the war on drugs, the LCSs are experiencing something of a second life.