US Detains Smuggling Ship, UK Seizes Drugs in Mideast Waters

U.S. service members conduct a boarding on a stateless fishing vessel transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman as a rigid-hull inflatable boat and patrol coastal ship USS Chinook (PC 9) sail nearby, on Jan. 18, 2022. U.S. Navy via AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized a boat in the Gulf of Oman carrying fertilizer used to make explosives that was caught last year smuggling weapons to Yemen. The British royal navy said it confiscated 1,041 kilograms (2,295 pounds) of illegal drugs in the same waters.

The interdictions were just the latest in the volatile waters of the Persian Gulf as American and British authorities step up seizures of contraband during the grinding conflict in Yemen and ongoing drug trafficking in the region.