The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a ship carrying 4 million litres of smuggled fuel in the Arabian Gulf, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
The ship was seized in a “precise operation and with complete intelligence”, the commander of the IRGC Navy Region 1, Brig Gen Gholamshahi, was quoted as saying.
It had 16 non-Iranian crew members on board and was about to leave Iran's territorial waters, the commander said.
Brig Gen Gholamshahi said intelligence investigations found that the ship had received a cargo of more than 4 million litres of smuggled fuel from smaller vessels and intended to transfer it larger vessels outside the Arabian Gulf.
“The case of this ship and its crew has been referred to the judicial authorities for consideration, and additional investigations are ongoing to identify the networks related to this smuggling,” he said.
“The smuggled fuel cargo will also be seized and disposed of in accordance with legal regulations.”
Earlier this month, Iran seized a foreign tanker allegedly carrying six million litres of smuggled diesel in the Gulf of Oman.
Eighteen crew members from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were on board, the state-affiliated Fars news agency reported, quoting an official from the southern province of Hormozgan.
Tehran, which has some of the world's lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighbouring countries and by sea to the region.
Last month, the IRGC seized a ship flying the flag of Eswatini and carrying “smuggled fuel” in the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
The IRGC, the ideological arm of the Iranian military, also seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf in November. The company managing the vessel said later that Iran had released the tanker and that its 21 crew members were safe.
Iranian authorities said “the tanker was in violation for carrying unauthorised cargo”.
