Exercises “Poseidon 2010”

In the period 22-23 June police officers of the Bureau of Anti-Terrorist Operations of the National Police Headquarters took part in two-day sea exercises in the vicinity of Świnoujście and Dziwnówek. The theme of the initiated by the Director of the Maritime Office in Szczecin exercise under the cryptonym “POSEIDON 2010” was “Cooperation of state administration services with formations of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration and the Ministry of National Defence in the face of a terrorist attack on a vessel and port facilities”.

The two-day exercises commenced from playing a practical episode at the roadstead of the port in Świnoujście. On 22 June the services VTS which were on duty became alarmed by the occurrence of the vessel “Poseidon 2010” (this role was played by a ship of the Maritime University in Szczecin “Navigator XXI”), whose actions were not in line with the information which it provided. A Unit of the Maritime Regional Unit of the Border Guard established that the ship was taken under control by a group of terrorists who dominated the vessel and who at the same time placed on its board a considerable amount of dangerous chemical substances and charges.

The terrorists put forward demands based on which they threatened to detonate the charges in the event of a failure to fulfil their demands within 24 hours. This, in turn, can result in destroying or breaking gas installations in the port of Świnoujście and in contaminating the environment.

As a result of negotiations the terrorists agreed to wait for fulfilling the demands at anchor in the vicinity of Dziwnówek. Meanwhile, sappers and divers from the 8th Battalion of Sappers installed on the ship simulators (training explosives and chemical agents). In the morning on 23 June operators from the Special Anti-Terrorist Police Unit [SPAP] Szczecin, the Bureau of Anti-Terrorist Operations of the National Police Headquarters and the Military Unit 2305 “GROM” carried out a boarding operation on the ship, rescued hostages, arrested the terrorists and took control over the vessel. Then, the action was attended by the Chemical Rescue Team for the 30th Chemical Company which neutralised the dangerous substance on the board. Injured seamen from the ship were transported to the ORP “Gniezno” from the 2nd Division of Transport and Mine Ships where they received medical help.

Furthermore, police officers of the Bureau of Anti-Terrorist Operations of the National Police Headquarters, thanks to several years’ training cooperation with the operators of the MU 2305 in the field of e.g. “Blue Tactics” again took part in the training whose aim was to cover a distance of several hundred kilometres with the use of fast boats of the “RIB” type.