Defence Team News | Making waves in the fight against illegal activities at sea
Video / September 11, 2024
Transcript
Captain (Navy) Matthews: Operation ARTEMIS is the Canadian Armed Forces contribution to the Combined Maritime Forces.
For CTF (Combined Task Force) 150, our particular focus is on narcotics, but we also have a mandate for interdiction of illegal weapons, as well as illegal charcoal and unregulated and unreported fishing.
This rotation of CTF 150 was definitely a multinational composition. We included members from the Australian Defence Force as well as the New Zealand Defence Force in order to bring together the main components of the team that would conduct operations for the next six months. So, we're able to operate with them and have a common understanding, a common appreciation of how each other works so that we can quickly integrate and develop into a cohesive unit to get after our mission.
In addition to our integral involvement in the weapons interdiction early in the deployment, we have had a multiple number of narcotics interdictions as well, which CTF 150 was a critical part in leading and coordinating those activities.
The total value we interdicted more than $100 million worth of illicit narcotics and that was also equivalent to a total of 12 tons of illicit narcotics that are no longer being used as a source of income for terrorists and criminal organizations in this region.