Posted on 04/20/2003 6:20:55 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
ELITE special forces launched from a navy frigate seized a North Korean cargo ship off the NSW coast yesterday in the dramatic end to a five-day, $80 million heroin bust.
In a joint Customs, police and military operation, 29 crew and the captain of the Pong Su were bundled ashore and arrested in Sydney yesterday, cracking what authorities believe to be a major international drug ring.
Authorities believe the Tuvalu-flagged vessel, which allegedly dumped $80 million of high-grade heroin near the Victorian west coast resort town of Lorne last Wednesday, is the "mother ship" of the cartel.
It is believed the North Korean embassy had been kept informed of the surveillance operation since last week, but it was unclear whether a complaint would be made to North Korea. The embassy last night refused to comment on the detention of the ship and crew, whom the Defence Department believe to be of Korean origin.
John Howard, who announced the mission's success yesterday afternoon, said the tough tactics would send a strong signal to international drug traffickers.
The Prime Minister said he had remained in close contact with the Chief of Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove, while the boat was under surveillance.
Mr Howard said the ship was owned by a North Korean firm, the Pyongyang-based Pongsu Shipping Company. But Lloyd's shipping registry has little information about the company, which has had ships detained by Japan and Hong Kong for being unseaworthy.
Amid rough seas, tactical assault soldiers boarded the 120m cargo vessel shortly after 6am yesterday.
The raid took place about 70km from the coast of Newcastle, after the boat had sailed for four days from the west coast of Victoria.
The operation, codenamed Tar tan, began when the Anzac frigate HMAS Stuart, which had been shadowing the ship since late Friday night, pulled up about 200m from Pong Su and sent a warning signal by loudspeaker and through an internationally recognised radio frequency.
Maritime Commander Rear Admiral Raydon Gates said the commanding officer of HMAS Stuart demanded the ship stop, turn around, lower a ladder and prepare to be boarded.
After trying to establish how many crew were on board, a number of SAS and 4th Battalion Royal Australian tactical assault soldiers, supported by members of the Incident Response Regiment and navy clearance divers, boarded the ship.
The soldiers simultaneously dropped down from a helicopter and boarded the ship from inflatable rafts and secured the bridge.
Special Operations Commander Major-General Duncan Lewis said the weather and swells made boarding the ship extremely dangerous.
The soldiers met little resistance from the crew, whose nationality was unclear but whom soldiers believed were speaking Korean and some broken English.
The Pong Su arrived at Sydney's Garden Island military complex at 4pm yesterday, where two dozen Australian Federal Police officers were waiting to arrest the crew.
The first crew member off the ship was taken into an ambulance with chest pain. The crew are expected to be questioned by the AFP before being extradited to Victoria.
The boat had been under surveillance by the RAAF and Coastwatch since last Wednesday, when it allegedly dumped 50kg of heroin, with an estimated street value of $80 million, near Lorne. The seizure is Victoria's biggest single cache of heroin.
Victorian police last week charged four people for their role in receiving the heroin – including two Malaysian men and one Singaporean man – while another man was found drowned near the shipment.
The heroin was brought ashore by dinghy in two plastic bags where it was allegedly intercepted by a group of men. After leaving Lorne last Wednesday, a Tasmanian police launch followed the ship as it headed towards NSW.
Supported by RAAF surveillance aircraft, NSW police aboard the Eden-based launch Fearless took up the chase and made contact with the ship's captain and demanded he stop.
However, the captain told the officers he was headed towards Papua New Guinea and immediately tacked eastward away from the coast. Rough conditions prevented NSW police from stopping the ship.
Victorian investigators have refused to confirm the drug deal has any links to the gangland-style murder in Melbourne last Tuesday of underworld standover man and drug dealer Nikolai Radev, 48.
Known in crime circles as "Nik the Russian", Radev was shot seven times as he walked to his Mercedes-Benz in a Coburg street.
Cool - Assuming this was not a private enterprise operation, taking away the North's customer base will hasten their collapse.
Hmm, take a guess and say ethnic Chinese? Korean ship. Russian mob boss. An "assymmetric warfare" joint production? Funding intel ops?
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