A dramatic sea chase involving international intelligence agencies and a combined police, navy and Special Forces team has ended off the South African coast with a ship suspected of carrying a ton of cocaine being stopped and boarded.

Details of the operation have been kept under wraps until now while several international follow-up actions were being done.

A parcel containing 25kg cocaine that washed up on a beach at Gansbaai near Hermanus last Thursday was a possible indication of what had happened to the cargo.

Rear-Admiral Philip Schoultz, Chief Director Operations of the Defence Force, lifted the veil slightly on Monday when he referred to the operation for the first time.

He said the operation had begun with a call from a high-ranking foreign diplomat, whose identity remains a secret.

"He asked if we couldn't help with drugs that were being shipped to South Africa, destined for the market here.

"But the Defence Force doesn't have any law-enforcement mandate, that's a police function."

Dakota sent on sea search

After a high-level discussion between police and the Defence Force, planning for the operation got under way.

Preliminary intelligence indicated that the ship was sailing down the western coast and would round Cape Point on a specific date.

"There was a critical time in our planning that we couldn't get from the international source, so we estimated where the ship would be, judging from its speed and size."

"An air force Dakota was sent to search an area of 166km x 740km for a ship that fitted our descriptions.

The Dakota crew were told by the ship's captain that his was a fishing factory vessel. He was en route from Abidjan in the Ivory Coast to Maputo, to buy fish, he said.

The Special Forces water unit at Langebaan sent photographs of the ship to the Defence Force joint operations centre, where they and police already had been working together for a day.

The ship was not flying any flag, which made it a stateless vessel in maritime terms. It also meant that the navy could board it even in international waters, on grounds that it appeared suspicious.

The SAS Isandlwana, one of the navy's new frigates, followed the suspect ship covertly for 24 hours.

The absence of a flag persuaded Schoultz and his team to send a boarding-party.

Police sniffer dogs found nothing on board and the skipper showed them papers indicating that the ship was registered in Guinea (Conakry).

The ship could not be impounded.

Shortly afterwards, however, it turned around and headed back to its port of origin.

Drugs dumped at sea?

Police received further information from abroad that the ship apparently had had a rendezvous with another ship in the Atlantic Ocean a week earlier.

Schoultz said the ship was stopped when it reached Abidjan, but no drugs were found on board.

"We suspect the drugs were thrown overboard. We're happy that our operation succeeded, because that ton of drugs never reached the streets of South Africa," he said.

Source: Beeld/avcom.co.za