The Indian Coast Guard has detained three tankers that are reportedly linked to an international syndicate involved in oil smuggling.
"The syndicate exploited mid-sea transfers in international waters to move cheap oil from conflict ridden regions to motor tankers, evading duties owed to coastal states," the coast guard said in a social media post on Saturday, February 7.
Acting on surveillance and data-pattern analysis, the coast guard intercepted the three suspect vessels in the Arabian Sea approximately 100 nautical miles west of Mumbai on Friday, February 6.
"Sustained rummaging, electronic data corroboration, and crew interrogation exposed the modus operandi and a global handler network," the coast guard said.
The vessels have been known to frequently change identity. They were later escorted to Mumbai for further legal action.
The coast guard did not disclose the identities of the three ships. However, according to shipping consultancy TankerTrackers.com, the detained ships are the tankers Al Jafzia, Asphalt Star and Stellar Ruby, all of which are on the list of vessels sanctioned by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for being affiliated with Iran.
OFAC earlier said that the vessels have engaged in ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil for illicit distribution to customers outside of the Middle East.
