A ROYAL Navy warship has seized £8.5 million worth of heroin during a raid on a fishing boat in the northern Arabian Sea.

Nearly 60 kilos of the drug was seized by sailors and Royal Marines from HMS Somerset, the Plymouth-based Type 23 frigate, who intercepted the suspect vessel using fast boats.

HMS Somerset's crew found the dhow - a type of vessel common to the Middle East and Indian Ocean during an operation for the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) counter-terrorism Combined Task Force (CTF) 150.

Commodore Jeremy Blunden, commander of CFT 150, said:"The destruction of the drugs will reduce key funding lines for known terror groups."