Recent Deployments
In August 2011, HMCS St John's participated in the multinational 6-week arctic sovereignty Operation Nanook. During the operation, HMCS St John's visited several northern communities and participated in search-and-rescue and disaster response exercises in company with HMCS Summerside and Moncton as well as American and Danish ships.
HMCS St John's deployed on Operation Caribbe from 3 October to 14 November 2011, Canada’s contribution to an ongoing U.S.-led, multinational effort to interdict drug trafficking in the international waters of the Caribbean Basin and eastern Pacific Ocean. During her deployment, she helped recover a drug cargo from a scuttled self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) vessel. The recovery effort included the deployment of the FBI laboratory’s technical dive team, which conducted dive operations on the scuttled SPSS from United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Cypress. More than 6,700 kg (15,000 lb) of cocaine was recovered from the vessel. The drugs, destined for distribution in North America, had an estimated street value of US$180 million.
During St. John’s deployment, the Joint Interagency Task Force South based out of Key West, Florida, coordinated the joint efforts in allowing the US Coast Guard to make 38 arrests, and seized a total of 10,902 kg (24,030 lb) of cocaine and 1,144 kg (2,520 lb) of marijuana, equating to more than US$223 million.
Read more about this topic: HMCS St. John's (FFH 340)