MIAMI – An advanced interdiction team from Maritime Safety and Security Team Miami returned home, today, from a four-month counter-piracy deployment to the Middle East including a seizure of 1,200 pounds of hashish.
“I’m very proud of the our Advanced Interdiction Team,” said LCDR Bryan Clampitt, MSST Miami’s commanding officer. “The seizure of hashish in the Gulf of Oman exemplifies the valuable law enforcement skills sets the Coast Guard offers combatant commanders around the globe.”
Under the direction of the U. S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, the detachment served aboard the Guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG-94), assigned to Combined Task Force 151.
While aboard the Nitze, they provided subject matter expertise to the Nitze’s Visit, Board, Search and Seizure team in emergency medical procedures, mission planning and execution, detecting hidden compartments onboard vessels suspected of smuggling contraband and conducting drills involving the interdiction of suspected pirate skiffs and vessels involved in illicit activity. In the Gulf of Oman, their cohesive partnership contributed to a discovery of a hidden compartment aboard a fishing dhow that had over 27 bales of Hashish that weighed more than1200 pounds with an estimated street value of more than $2.7 Million.
The detachment attended NATO’s Maritime Interdiction Operations Training Course of counter piracy and advanced boarding tactics training before deploying to CTF 151’s area of responsibility. The course prepared the team for the execution of surface, sub-surface, aerial surveillance and special operations activities in support of maritime interdiction operations.
CTF-151 is a multi-national task force working under Combined Maritime Forces to conduct counter-piracy operations in the Southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Augmented by members from the Coast Guard’s San Diego-based Pacific Tactical Law Enforcement Team, MSST Miami’s AIT was engaged in stemming illegal piracy and armed robbery at sea.
The Nitze is Guided-missile destroyer homeported in Norfolk, Va.
MSST Miami was created under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 in direct response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and is a part of the Department of Homeland Security’s layered strategy directed at protecting seaports and waterways.
MSSTs provide waterborne and a shore-side antiterrorism force protection for strategic shipping, high-interest vessels and critical infrastructure. These units are a quick response force capable of rapid worldwide deployment via air, ground or sea transportation in response to changing threat conditions and evolving maritime homeland security mission requirements.
Eleven MSSTs are strategically positioned throughout the nation and are components of the U.S. Deployable Operations Group. The DOG provides properly equipped, trained and organized Deployable Specialized Forces to Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and interagency operational commanders.
