Iran Says It Has Captured Another Foreign Ship Smuggling Fuel

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) captured a foreign ship that was carrying huge amounts of smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf three weeks after a similar operation in the same region.

In a statement on Sunday, the IRGC Navy’s Public Relations Department said that the foreign ship has been captured by the military vessels patrolling the second naval zone in the Persian Gulf as part of the operations to detect and fight against organized smuggling.

The IRGC Navy’s patrol vessels confiscated the foreign tanker that was carrying 700,000 liters of smuggled fuel in a surprise operation after coordination with judicial authorities, it added.

According to the statement, the foreign ship was seized near Farsi Island, a tiny, barren island in the Persian Gulf.

Earlier on July 14, the IRGC Navy had captured a foreign oil tanker that was carrying one million liters of smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf.

The IRGC Navy said, in a statement on July 18, that the foreign tanker was seized in southern parts of Larak, a small island in the Persian Gulf, after obtaining a judicial warrant.

There were 12 foreign crew on board the tanker which has a capacity of 2 million liters of fuel, the statement said.