First picture of Wren accused of stowing £5m cocaine on warship

A Royal Navy Wren smuggled cocaine worth £5million into the UK on a warship after a tour of duty in South America, a court heard yesterday.

Teresa Matos, 36, is said to have stashed 26lb of the drug in her locker on board HMS Manchester.

She was arrested in Plymouth after the cocaine was found in packages sewn into vests and around rucksacks.

Matos, who has served in the navy for two years, is believed to have been targeted after a tip-off to Royal Navy police.

The drugs haul would have a street value of £5million once it was ‘cut’ or bulked out with additives.

Matos, an Angolan, is understood to have arrived in Britain from Africa with her sister five years ago. She joined the navy after gaining UK citizenship.

She settled in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. However, her neighbours said they rarely see her because she is often at sea. Matos, an Angolan, is understood to have arrived in Britain from Africa with her sister five years ago. She joined the navy after gaining UK citizenship.

Her latest tour in HMS Manchester involved anti-drugs training in a part of the world renowned for its narcotics industry.

While she was there, Matos did charity work and spent time with children from an orphanage in Peru.

The Royal Navy website describes her as ‘Logs CS Matos’, referring to her role in logistics and the catering service.

It tells how she was proud to help renovate buildings in Rio de Janeiro, halfway through the ship’s seven month deployment.

She is quoted as saying: ‘I really enjoyed the experience and I am looking forward to doing some similar charity work not only in Brazil but in other countries.’

Yesterday, Matos spoke only to confirm her name when she appeared via videolink from custody.

Plymouth Magistrates’ Court heard Matos joined the Navy in 2007 and had an ‘unblemished record’.

She had spent the last seven months at sea in HMS Manchester, which stopped off in the Falklands,

Peru and Brazil before visiting Colombia’s Caribbean coast for anti-drug training.

After her arrest the investigation was handed over to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which has since arrested three civilians from the London area in connection with the find.

They appeared in court in Portsmouth last week charged with the importation of controlled drugs.

Her latest tour in HMS Manchester involved anti-drugs training... A spokesman said: ‘Following a search aboard HMS Manchester, a junior rating was discovered to be in possession of a suspected quantity of Class A drugs.

‘She was arrested by Royal Navy police on August 10 and handed over to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in Plymouth during a planned anchorage.’

He added: ‘This is a quantity indicative of a large criminal enterprise involving many, many people.

‘Taking into account HMS Manchester visited Colombia during its last voyage before entering Plymouth, it seems this is part of an international drug smuggling operation.’

Neighbours of Matos in Gateshead said she had lived there for around four years, during which time she had various jobs including working as a hotel chambermaid.

Albert Bell, 57, said: ‘I have known Teresa for around four years and have become good friends.

‘When she first came here her English was terrible but it has improved immensely.

‘She had not passed her British citizenship test when she arrived but once she did she joined the navy immediately. continues here

So there you have it, a foreigner can enter the country ,apply for nationality and join HMAF almost immediately, aside from the threat to the general public presented by avaricious drug-smugglers ,dealers and suchlike, surely even a fool could see that permitting an unknown individual into HMAF presents as a very great threat to national security. It would seem that “the agenda” supersedes even that and we ,the people are to be placed at severe risk in all areas, certainly this government fails in its duty of care, yet you vote for them…

Army almost at full strength after recession drives hundreds of new recruits to join

The armed forces are set to reach full strength in the next two years, as the recession drives hundreds of new recruits to join.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Defence show that the army, navy and air force are almost at are at 97.2 per cent of their full time trained strength requirement.

This is up from 96.8 per cent last quarter.
London head of recruitment, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Meldon, said: 'All of a sudden in January these people started to come into the offices. We noticed about a 20-25 per cent increase over the same week the previous year. That was probably down to people not having the opportunities out their in the economy.'

David Hollas, commander of recruitment in the East of England, said: 'It made us very busy over Christmas. Unfortunately many who showed an interest were unsuitable: either too lazy, too unfit or with a bad attitude.'

Mr Hollas said that another recruitment wave was expected this summer at the end of the academic year.

More than 20,000 new recruits joined the Armed Forces in the 12 months to December 31, up by 7.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2007.

Major-General Gerald Berragan, head of recruitment, stressed that the military was not a short-term commitment, but he admitted that the recession was making it a more attractive option.

'We should be able to attract better people and that is what we need,' he said.

The figures come despite a rising death toll in Afghanistan where four more British Service personnel, including one Gurkha, were killed on Thursday.

Recruitment techniques have also been overhauled with internet and television campaigns becoming more prominent.

Defence Minister Kevan Jones was cautious about crediting the rise in new recruits to the recession despite the evidence. continues here
You’d think we’d learn, we who have forever been exploited, we represented by the figure of Tommy Atkins, a figure loathed in peace-time and sent out for them in war, cannon fodder we, mere numbers, expendable, worthless. When have we ever fought for ourselves, ever held the line for our good, oh they will tell you against Germany, against, they will say fascism, yet this too is a lie, Mr Hitler wanted no war with us, no designs upon us he. Then to they exploited, the owned media made its play and we the massed ranks of the working-class marched for them, little knowing then that we fought for this, this age to come, this monstrous era.

We handed them Europe on a plate and permitted them to cull us and now we reap the whirlwind, now we march to death, again though in their relentless quest to rule all peoples, to amass fortune and govern resource, Tommy Atkins must march. There are no jobs you see, again no jobs, if one were inclined one could see pattern, shape, structure to their scheme. Now though they have us in our very homes, that mouthpiece for malevolence spews its lies, glamorises death and young eyes light up, after all do they not imbue all of our children with tales of heroism, of supposed good over evil, do that not train us for their greater good.

They have the west, its peoples cowed, perhaps never again to rise, now they look with eager eyes to the east and they need again Tommy Atkins, “go take your silver and fight”, on foreign field against foreign foe, strive, quake and yes kill and still they will hate you, still they will despise you and still you will be used. Such a game, such a laugh to them I suppose, we losing our friends, our children and indeed our lives, oh but it for justice as we bomb from on high, as children die and mothers wail, as hatred augments and the press revel.

You should never fight for them Tommy Atkins, never heft weapon and march to evils tune, never help tyrannies hand but you will never know, did not I, for all my writing now, not fall for similar trick. Skip to join, eyes alight and chest a busting, thoughts of heroism large in my mind, ah they will think of me I thought, she will think of me, it will be as a film, a movie, those propaganda pieces that flicker their way into a young boys imagination.

Again and again and again, generations rush to their call, the call of the treacherous, the cowardly and the crooked, we fight, we die and time moves on, yet still Tommy Atkins is exploited, hated and deceived. Which is worse, the deceiving ,the hatred or the exploitation, the ruination of young lives and the culling of potential, yet you fight and I cannot stop you, they swell your heart and pride threatens to burst and mothers look on so proudly, fathers unusually hold back tears and young boys think themselves men. Yet it is over, over in a blink, a flutter and reality sets in, harsh voices, harsh duty and fear, you are no-one there Tommy Atkins a name and number and yet on Civvy Street the same, they give you nothing and take a lot.

If they would send you to our coast, deploy you to save us, stem the tide and give us peace but no, instead its foreign fields and wars of no merit, the killing of civilians who pose us no threat. It gains them, gains them all, works on many levels, the east hates us and cultures clash, oh but they will keep us safe, “more cameras, Sir?” more tyranny for tea, id-cards and a war on terror. Yet they create the terror ,they by their actions, their deeds and their scheming, pick your child out of rumble and you to would seek retribution, you to would pay no regard to white faces, white culture, white children.

Look to the skies as they bomb you, incinerate and bombard you, what then your choice, other than attack, peace is a wonder, a gift to all, yet we let evil dictate, read a press crafted by devious hands, propaganda wafts its way each night and we all now breath it in. What if though we learned, what if we said no, take your glossy propaganda and leave alone our children, shiny buttons and pomp and splendour, cast aside and the young with a future, what if those of the east resided in the east and we all lived in peace. No mosques upon our skyline, no strange tongues within our towns, Tommy has a job now and lives a life complete, no white crosses forgotten wars and need to take the silver, because our country has turned gold.

Army's demand for 15% limit on foreign recruits to safeguard 'Britishness' upsets race watchdog

Army chiefs want foreign recruit numbers to be capped to safeguard 'Britishness' within the ranks. 

They have demanded a 15 per cent limit amid fears the soaring numbers of foreign troops would dilute the force's cultural identity. 

They also fear that foreign countries could ban their own citizens from fighting Britain's wars, seriously hampering key operations.



The measure has been backed by Defence Secretary Des Browne and was due to be announced two weeks ago.

But the plans have been thrown into chaos by race relations watchdogs who will not support the measure.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission says there are 'large issues of principle'.

Senior officers are angry over the Government's dithering, and recruiting trips to the West Indies have had to be cancelled until the confusion is cleared up.

Some branches of the Army are already at the planned 15 per cent limit and would have to start turning away foreign applicants as soon as the policy comes into force.


Army manpower is falling as recruitment fails to keep pace with the exodus of experienced troops.

Commanders admit the overstretched military could no longer function without the growing numbers of troops from Fiji, the West Indies, South Africa and elsewhere.

The current 6,500 foreign soldiers now account for almost 7 per cent of Army manpower, up from just 0.3 per cent in 1997.

Almost two-thirds of all applicants wanting to join the Army in London are now foreign.
Across the whole Army the figure is almost 20 per cent.

Leaked documents seen by the Daily Mail reveal that defence chiefs believe enough is enough, and that an over-reliance on foreign troops is threatening Britain's fighting capabilities.

Classified Ministry of Defence papers say the new limit aims 'to reduce the risk to operational effectiveness from an over-reliance on personnel who are not British citizens and are not therefore under the full control of the UK Government.

'For example, other Governments might introduce laws which ban their citizens from taking part in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We cannot have parts of the Army unable to be deployed.'

The paper also warns that the nation must maintain 'Armed Forces which are predominantly British and whose members reflect and share the culture and values of British society'.

Mr Browne accepted the Army chiefs' demands in July, provided that the Equality and Human Rights Commission backed the move.

The 15 per cent cap, which would apply to each branch of the Army - such as infantry, engineers, artillery and logistics - would breach the Race Relations Act by treating foreigners less favourably.