Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign vessel smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its crew members, state media said Sunday, in the third such incident reported this month.
The Guards “seized a foreign vessel carrying 200,000 litres (around 53,000 gallons) of smuggled fuel in the north of the Persian Gulf and directed it to Bushehr (port)”, state broadcaster IRIB said, quoting a statement by the Guards’s Navy.
“Eight crew members of the vessel, who are foreigners, were arrested and taken to Bushehr port, where they will be handed over to the judicial authorities to complete the investigation and legal processes,” it added.
The crewmen’s nationalities were not specified.
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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the ideological arm of Iran’s military.
The incident is the latest in a series of seizures of fuel-smuggling vessels in sea lanes of the Gulf, where a large portion of the world’s oil is produced and shipped.
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On April 15, Iranian media reported the seizure of a boat carrying 250,000 litres of smuggled fuel and the arrest of its seven-member crew.
Another boat with 11 crew on board was seized, in a report on April 9.
“The fight against smuggling, especially fuel smuggling, is one of the main priorities of the IRGC Navy in order to support national production and the dynamism of the country’s economy,” the statement said.
According to a report, the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have seized a ship on suspicion of smuggling fuel in the Gulf near the island of Abu Musa, and detained its 16 Malaysian crew, the state news agency IRNA reported on Monday.
IRNA said the ship was carrying more than 1.3 million liters of fuel.
The report did not say what national flag the vessel was flying.
Iran has frequently seized boats that it says are being used for smuggling fuel in the Gulf.
