Pubdate: Tue, 28 May 2002
Source: Daily News, The (CN NS)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/179
Author: Beth Johnston, The Daily News

TORONTO'S HIGH-SEAS DRUG BUST 'UNBELIEVABLE'

As sailors from HMCS Toronto busily gathered their bags Monday, the ships 
commanding officer, Ian Paterson, recalled some of the highlights of the 
deployment.

One memorable moment, he said, was busting a boat with $40 million US worth 
of Afghani hashish.

Unbelievable. Have you ever seen $40 million go up in smoke? he asked.

The Toronto was inspecting fishing boats off the coast of Pakistan when 
crew members noticed two men take off in a speed boat. They saw smoke 
coming from the back of the larger boat, so they circled it for an hour.

We thought, Is this some sort of booby trap? Paterson explained.

When they finally realized it was just something burning on a stove, they 
boarded and found 100 blue bags, each with about 20 packages of hash the 
size of a VHS cassette with the words Freedom for Afghanistan stamped in 
gold letters, in the boats holds.

The Toronto towed the boat while waiting for U.S. Navy backup.

The next morning, when the USS Lady Gulf came over the horizon at 30 knots, 
they hoisted the Canadian flag at the masthead, he said. In 23 years, Id 
never seen an American ship hoist anybodys flag. We were pretty choked up.

The United States claims profits from drug sales have helped finance 
international terrorism.

The American warship hammered at the empty fishing boat for an hour with 
heavy machine guns, Paterson said.

It was like Arnold Swartzenegger in Die Hard 2 ... the sea was boiling, 
there was smoke coming off, he said. We were just howling. They blew it to 
pieces.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom