With one incredible shot, a Royal Marine sniper has managed to take out the engine of a speedboat carrying £40million of cocaine.
The Royal Navy confirmed that the rifleman ended a six-hour chase through the Caribbean with a single shot from inside a Lynx chopper, reports The Sun.
Incredible photos show the muzzle flash of the sniper as his shot completely destroyed the engine block of the speedboat.
A source said:
It was a terrific shot that has stopped a lot of cocaine flooding on to the streets.
The chase began after patrol aircraft spotted the speedboat and directed the ship Wave Knight to intercept it. After locating the smugglers, a Lynx chopper was launched with the sniper from 815 Naval Air Squadron on board.
Foolishly, the desperate crew of the speedboat chose to ignore a burst of warning fire before the sniper took out the engines with his rifle.
A specialist team of U.S coastguard drug enforcement agents boarded the boat and discovered 14 bales of cocaine weighing 350kgs.
The cocaine recovered is said to have a street value of £14million, however the crew had already ditched several bales overboard which authorities estimate to be worth around £26 million.
Captain Nigel Budd, Wave Knight’s Commanding Officer said:
This highlights how effectively we and our allies are working together to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks that depend on the flow of illicit drugs from South America into the U.S the Caribbean, and Europe.
That shot though…
