Two years of fruitless negotiations resulted in a further declaration of 'independence' in January 1969, while on 11 March of the same year the islanders mobbed the British PUS at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, when he visited Anguilla. The Labour government of the time seized upon wildly exaggerated reports that Anguilla had fallen into the hands of the Mafia and that the islanders were armed to the teeth. At 0315 hours on 19 March a force of 315 men of 2 PARA, airlifted from Britain in company with 47 London policemen, stormed ashore at Anguilla from the frigates Rothesay and Minerva. They were met only by the flashbulbs of an amused and incredulous international press, and subsequently discovered only 39 weapons and a rusting Napoleonic cannon on the entire island. 2 PARA were withdrawn in September 1969.