THE men and women of HMS Montrose bagged the biggest haul of drugs by an Allied warship east of Suez this year.

Ten tonnes of narcotics – principally hashish, but some cocaine as well – was seized by a boarding team from the Devonport-based frigate when they inspected a dhow.

Montrose left Devon in March, since when she’s been attached first to Combined Task Force 150 in the Indian Ocean and its sister group, 152, in the central and southern Gulf.

The key aim of both task forces is to stop illegal activity on the high seas – smuggling, human/drugs trafficking, terrorist movements – and allow lawful trade to flourish.

Montrose spent a long time building up “a picture of life” on the sea, monitoring shipping, getting to know local fishermen and their practices. Having learned what was normal, the ship’s company were able to spot what wasn’t normal.

Which is exactly what they did when she came across a dhow heading against the flow of normal traffic. “We knew something was up,” said Cdr Andy Hogben, the Type 23’s CO.

Confirmation came when the frigate sailed up to the run-down vessel. The presence of a 3,500 tons of grey steel, guns, missiles and helicopter has a habit of (a) putting the willies up sailors or (b) at the very least grabbing their attention. The dhow’s crew kept their heads down and continued as if everything was normal.

The result was a visit from a Royal Marines and Royal Navy boarding party – and a lengthy search.

“These dhows are filthy, hot, there’s little food, little water, and our lads get right in the thick of it,” said Cdr Hogben.

In the end, the traffickers were undone by a measuring tape, a piece of paper, a pencil and some good old British nous.

Every inch of the vessel was measured and mapped out. The numbers didn’t tally.

As it turned out the dhow was hiding a secret compartment, barely a couple of feet wide. Inside were sacks and sacks of hashish and a little heroin – ten tonnes of narcotics in all, worth £20m on the streets.

All had to be removed and counted on the dhow’s deck before one by one, each bag was ripped up and its contents tossed into the Indian Ocean. It took a team of 20 sailors and marines over nine hours – in 40° heat.

“It was a good day for us, a bad day for the criminals,” said Cdr Hogben. “The guys and gals could see tangible results from their efforts, although I don’t think it sank in until about 24 hours afterwards.”

His ship is currently patrolling the southern Gulf as part of the British-led CTF 152 with a number of Allied warships.