Iran’s IRGC seizes foreign vessel transporting smuggled fuel

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has confiscated a foreign tanker carrying two million liters of smuggled fuel in the country's southern waters, a commander says.

"This morning, a foreign vessel with the flag of a country from Oceania was identified with two million liters of smuggled diesel," Commander of the IRGC's Second Naval Zone, Brigadier General Heidar Honarian Mojarad told reporters on Sunday.

He said the vessel was seized in accordance with a court order off the coast of the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr.

The commander said 14 crew members, who were from two Asian countries, had also been arrested and handed over to authorities.

General Honarian Mojarad said the confiscated diesel cargo was handed over to the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company in Bushehr Province.

The commander said the ship had been monitored since the loading of the fuel cargo and was seized upon entering the operational area of the IRGC's Second Naval Zone.

The IRGC's Navy uses state-to-the-art detection tools and monitors all movements in the Persian Gulf, the Iranian commander stated.

The IRGC's Navy has over the past years foiled several attacks on both Iranian and foreign tankers in the strategic Persian Gulf region and other high seas.

ME