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USS De Wert stops drug smugglers cold

By Lt. Jeff Gordon, U.S. Naval Forces, Southern Command public affairs

October 12, 2000, USS DE WERT, At Sea (NNS) - The guided missile frigate USS De Wert (FFG 45) appeared on the international media scope recently because of a dramatic and somewhat unusual narcotics seizure in international waters off Colombia's Pacific Coast.

USS De Wert, currently on a multi-mission deployment to the U.S. Southern Command Area of Responsibility, was on a counter-drug, maritime interdiction operations patrol when Sailors spotted a "go-fast," or speedboat, suspected of carrying narcotics.

After a several-hour chase, the speedboat turned on USS De Wert and rammed the ship in the starboard quarter in an attempt to sink itself and with it any evidence of hauling narcotics. Prior to this act, the speedboat's crew had dumped more than 50 packages of narcotics, suspected to be cocaine, into the ocean, which were later recovered by the frigate's crew as evidence.

The speedboat's crew of six men were taken into custody by a U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment embarked aboard USS De Wert.

What made the case so interesting, was that after the suspects dumped their illicit cargo into the ocean, they reportedly threw off their clothes and doused themselves with gasoline prior to ramming the ship. Headlines in Colombia as well as an article in USA Today read, "Naked drug runners nabbed off Colombia."

A statement from the Colombian navy said the kamikaze-style traffickers, who may have sampled a bit too much of their own merchandise, were arrested Sept. 27.

USS De Wert, homeported in Mayport, Fla., is scheduled to conclude the deployment later this fall.


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