Delta state Navy officers has destroyed about 1500 illegal refineries with swamp buggy in the Delta creeks in the last two months.

The Commander of the ship, Commodore Ibrahim Dewu, disclosed this to newsmen in Warri on Wednesday.

Swamp buggy is an amphibious vehicle used to traverse a swampy terrain.

Dewu said the destruction exercise was carried out in the creeks of Otumara, Ogbegugu, Okpuku in the Warri creeks.

He added that personnel of the command were currently on the Bennett Island in Warri South Local Government Area of the state in continuation of the exercise.

He said that the perpetrators had devised means of preventing the soldiers and the swamp buggy from gaining access to the sites by blocking the entrances with logs or setting fire around the sites.

The commander, however, said their antics would not deter the soldiers from carrying out their statutory obligation of completely eradicating illegalities in the maritime domain.

In one of the operations on Bennett Island on June 12, the perpetrators set fire around the vicinity of the illegal refinery to prevent the soldiers from entering.

The navy personnel then created alternative means for themselves, journalists and the swamp buggy to gain access and therefore, crushed the criminals’ equipment amid thick smoke and rain.