Royal Marine sniper shoots out engine of speedboat carrying £40m of cocaine with one shot
Rifleman ended a six hour chase with a single blast from inside chopper
A ROYAL Marine sniper shot out the engine of a speedboat carrying £40million of cocaine in the Caribbean, the Royal Navy confirmed last night.
The rifleman ended a six-hour chase through the high seas with a single blast from inside a Lynx chopper.
Incredible images of the shot – showing the sniper's muzzle flash — were released yesterday.
A source said: “It was a terrific shot that has stopped a lot of cocaine flooding on to the streets.”
The bust was sparked after patrol aircraft spotted the speedboat and directed auxiliary ship Wave Knight to intercept.
She immediately hunted down the smugglers before launching a Lynx chopper, with the sniper from 815 Naval Air Squadron on board.
When a burst of warning shots were ignored the sniper took out the engines with his rifle.
Officials revealed a specialist team of US coastguard drug enforcement agents then boarded the boat and discovered 14 bales of cocaine weighing 350kgs.
The cocaine had a street value of £14million -but before the wonder shot the crew were spotted ditching several more bales overboard.
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US authorities reckoned 650kg of cocaine worth around £26million was jettisoned.
The speed boat later sank.
The five-man crew plus the haul of drugs were transferred to the US Coast Guard cutter Richard Etheridge and handed over to authorities in Miami Beach.
Mike Penning MP, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, said: “This high-speed intervention shows how the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Royal Navy are making a difference around the world to tackle threats wherever they occur.”
And Captain Nigel Budd, Wave Knight’s Commanding Officer said: “This seizure highlights how effectively the US Coast Guard. We and our allies are working together to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks that depend on the flow of illicit drugs from South America into the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe.”
Details of the raid — which happened a fortnight ago — could only be released yesterday because of legal processes in the US.