IDF
19-12-2007, 06:40
Haifa, IDF
The last pallet of cargo had been loaded below decks of the Wind Setter. Captain Orly Gertz was standing on the port bridge wing waiting for the harbor master to give him an all clear. Gertz wanted to get his ship moving as quick as he could. The cargo he was carrying was going to give him ulcers. If anyone found out about this operation, there would be major issues.
The harbor master finally gave the vessel clearance to leave. Bow and stern thrusters engaged to nudge the vessel away from her berthing. Once clear, the thrusters were disengaged and the reversible pitch screws engaged to bring the vessel backwards at 4 knots. The rudder was applied and the thrusters were once again engaged to turn the ship so that she was perpendicular with the docks. Once again, the thrusters were disengaged and the screws propelled the ship forward and brought her on a course of 270 out of the busy port. Lookouts were posted to ensure that no freighters or pleasure craft got near the 10,000 ton vessel.
The vessel was a Farragut class blockade-runner. She was 460 feet long and had several stealthy features. She was of course detectable on RADAR, but her appearance on screens would make her appear to be the size of a trawler rather than what she was. The Farragut class vessels were designed in Israel, but thousands had been built for export and thousands more had been built under license. Built atop a destroyer hull, these vessels were designed to do one job, smuggle and run blockades.
That was the job that Captain Gertz and his crew of 50 were about to do. Their vessel was carrying 1,000 tons of Heroin. The Wind Setter was the first of seven vessels purchased by Atlantic Mercantile Holdings to perform such runs. The LLC was owned on paper by a group of European investors. In reality, it was owned by the Israeli government. The ships were flying Panamanian flags and were registered with Panama's government. A Farragut class vessel flying a Panamanian flag would not draw any unusual suspicion. Thousands of such vessels existed.
In an attempt to grab a hold of the growing drug market, IDF had quietly legalized the growing of narcotics while still banning their use in Israel. A few quiet farms were set up to grow the product and process it into heroin. The heroin was then loaded into innocent looking crates and then onto pallets aboard the blockade runners. The Wind Setter was part of the pilot program. If successful, a fleet numbering in the dozens and leaving from many ports of embarkation would be amassed to fuel the Western Hemisphere's need for drugs.
Captain Gertz was not taking his ship to a major port. His vessel was to head out to a remote Caribbean Island where the cargo would be sold to agents who would then smuggle the drugs into their country of operations and sell it to users. The island in question was privately owned by a rich European bank tycoon who had a side job of being a Mossad agent.
After thinking it over, Gertz did not think he was in too much danger. Even if he cargo was known, his ship would be difficult to find among the thousands of similar ships on the high seas. In addition to that, he wasn't doing anything illegal. He wasn't breaking Israel's laws and was selling to smugglers in an area where such sale was legal. He still had to be cautious as the drug trade was never quite clean.
The last pallet of cargo had been loaded below decks of the Wind Setter. Captain Orly Gertz was standing on the port bridge wing waiting for the harbor master to give him an all clear. Gertz wanted to get his ship moving as quick as he could. The cargo he was carrying was going to give him ulcers. If anyone found out about this operation, there would be major issues.
The harbor master finally gave the vessel clearance to leave. Bow and stern thrusters engaged to nudge the vessel away from her berthing. Once clear, the thrusters were disengaged and the reversible pitch screws engaged to bring the vessel backwards at 4 knots. The rudder was applied and the thrusters were once again engaged to turn the ship so that she was perpendicular with the docks. Once again, the thrusters were disengaged and the screws propelled the ship forward and brought her on a course of 270 out of the busy port. Lookouts were posted to ensure that no freighters or pleasure craft got near the 10,000 ton vessel.
The vessel was a Farragut class blockade-runner. She was 460 feet long and had several stealthy features. She was of course detectable on RADAR, but her appearance on screens would make her appear to be the size of a trawler rather than what she was. The Farragut class vessels were designed in Israel, but thousands had been built for export and thousands more had been built under license. Built atop a destroyer hull, these vessels were designed to do one job, smuggle and run blockades.
That was the job that Captain Gertz and his crew of 50 were about to do. Their vessel was carrying 1,000 tons of Heroin. The Wind Setter was the first of seven vessels purchased by Atlantic Mercantile Holdings to perform such runs. The LLC was owned on paper by a group of European investors. In reality, it was owned by the Israeli government. The ships were flying Panamanian flags and were registered with Panama's government. A Farragut class vessel flying a Panamanian flag would not draw any unusual suspicion. Thousands of such vessels existed.
In an attempt to grab a hold of the growing drug market, IDF had quietly legalized the growing of narcotics while still banning their use in Israel. A few quiet farms were set up to grow the product and process it into heroin. The heroin was then loaded into innocent looking crates and then onto pallets aboard the blockade runners. The Wind Setter was part of the pilot program. If successful, a fleet numbering in the dozens and leaving from many ports of embarkation would be amassed to fuel the Western Hemisphere's need for drugs.
Captain Gertz was not taking his ship to a major port. His vessel was to head out to a remote Caribbean Island where the cargo would be sold to agents who would then smuggle the drugs into their country of operations and sell it to users. The island in question was privately owned by a rich European bank tycoon who had a side job of being a Mossad agent.
After thinking it over, Gertz did not think he was in too much danger. Even if he cargo was known, his ship would be difficult to find among the thousands of similar ships on the high seas. In addition to that, he wasn't doing anything illegal. He wasn't breaking Israel's laws and was selling to smugglers in an area where such sale was legal. He still had to be cautious as the drug trade was never quite clean.