Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has seized a vessel in the Persian Gulf that was allegedly carrying around 4 million litres of smuggled fuel, detaining 16 foreign crew members, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.
The ship was intercepted by IRGC naval forces as it was preparing to leave Iran’s territorial waters, according to Brigadier General Abbas Gholamshahi, commander of the IRGC Navy’s First Naval Zone.
He said the operation was conducted based on specific intelligence assessments and ongoing monitoring of maritime traffic in the region.
Iranian authorities said intelligence indicated that the vessel had collected the fuel from multiple smaller boats and was planning to transfer the cargo to larger vessels outside the Persian Gulf.
The ship was described as being part of an organised fuel-smuggling network operating in the area.
Gholamshahi stated that the crew members, all of whom were non-Iranian nationals, had been handed over to judicial authorities along with the vessel.
He did not disclose the ship’s flag, ownership, destination, or the nationalities of those detained, adding that investigations are ongoing to identify the smuggling networks involved.
The seized fuel has been confiscated, and authorities will decide what happens to it under Iranian law. Iranian officials have previously said the country loses billions of dollars annually due to such illicit trade.
Less than a month earlier, the IRGC Navy seized an Eswatini-flagged vessel carrying approximately 350,000 litres of gasoil off the Bushehr coast in southern Iran. Thirteen crew members from different countries were detained in that case.
In late November, Iranian forces also intercepted two vessels near Kish Island that were allegedly transporting a combined 80,000 litres of smuggled fuel.
Earlier in the same month, the IRGC seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker off the Makran coast along the Gulf of Oman.
In a separate incident, the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Talara was seized outside Iran’s territorial waters after authorities said it was carrying an unauthorised petrochemical cargo belonging to Iran.
