A Bahrain-based naval force has seized 981kg of highly purified heroin from drug smugglers off Africa's east coast.

The drugs were heading for Tanzania when they were intercepted by naval forces during an operation that lasted several weeks, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Australian ship HMAS Newcastle seized 724kg of heroin in four separate boardings during one month, while New Zealand's HMNZS Te Kaha recovered a further 257kg in two separate boardings of dhows during June.

The operation involving Australia, New Zealand, the UK and France was co-ordinated by the Bahrain-based Combined Task Force (CTF) 150.

Success
"This success was made possible by using many aspects of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) multi-national operations and international organisations to identify, track and board trafficking ships and dhows across thousands of miles of open seas," said CMF deputy commander Commodore Will Warrender from the Royal Navy.

A statement said initial testing revealed the heroin was of a much higher purity than previously seen in CMF drug hauls.

It is also estimated more than three million individual doses of heroin had been prevented from reaching the streets.

Also involved in the operation was French ship Var and the UK's HMS Richmond.

CTF-150 is one of three naval task forces operated by CMF, which is a multinational naval partnership of 30 nations including Bahrain formed in 2001. - TradeArabia News Service