An Australian Navy warship patrolling Indian Ocean waters has seized heroin worth $183 million near east Africa this week, a navy official says.
It is one of the region's biggest heroin hauls in recent years.
East Africa has become a key export route for Afghan heroin destined for Europe but regional maritime forces, short of funds and anti-trafficking expertise, have struggled to stem the flow of narcotics through their territorial waters.
Crew from the frigate HMAS Toowoomba boarded a vessel in international waters on Monday and confiscated 388 kilograms of heroin in hessian bags after an intelligence tip-off, the 30-country Coalition Maritime Forces (CMF) naval group said in a statement.
"The teams ashore and onboard the ship provided key pieces of the puzzle which led to this successful intercept," commanding officer of HMAS Toowoomba Cath Hayes said.
HMAS Toowoomba was deployed as part of CMF to counter piracy, militancy, smuggling and other illegal activities in an area covering the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman.
The CMF did not give the precise location of the seizure but to date most of the major heroin seizures in east Africa took place near Kenya and Tanzania, widely seen as the main gateways for Afghan drugs into east Africa.
In April, another Australian warship near Kenya raided a vessel with 1,023 kilograms of heroin on board, which remains the record heroin haul seized by the CMF in the region.
