£6m drugs go up in smoke thanks to 854 NAS

This is the explosive end of a 4x4 truck used by drug-runners in Helmand – spotted by Royal Navy aviators and blown up by US Marines.

It’s another blow dealt to the insurgents’ drug trade in southern Afghanistan which falls foul of the Royal Navy’s ‘eyes in the sky’, the ‘Baggers’, almost every week.

Drugs worth £6m were seized – and subsequently destroyed – by ground troops thanks to intelligence fed them by 854 Naval Air Squadron and its Airborne Surveillance and Control Sea Kings.

The illegal drugs trade is a mainstay of insurgent activity in Afghanistan, but the movements of narcotics around the south of the country is monitored by Allied surveillance – not least the Baggers, as the distinctive Sea Kings are known throughout the Royal Navy.

Since this dramatic bust yet more drugs have been captured following tip-offs from Bagger crews – some 800kg – plus an impressive haul of insurgent arms: more than six tons of explosives, hundreds of weapons and radios being seized.

“Both the US Marine Corps and British forces continue to demand our capabilities to strangle insurgent supply routes,” said 854’s Commanding Officer Lt Cdr Paul Harrison.

“The Airborne Surveillance and Control Sea King continues to surprise everyone, including the most experienced operators, with its long range detections providing surveillance over massive areas of Afghanistan.”

His squadron takes it in turns with Culdrose sister unit 857 Naval Air Squadron to patrol Afghan skies; between them the two Cornish squadrons have clocked up more than 1,000 missions over Helmand.