Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized the crew and cargo of a foreign ship carrying 11 million litres (2.9 million gallons) of smuggled fuel reports a local judiciary official.
Mojtaba Ghahremani, the judiciary chief of Hormozgan’s southern province, announced on Monday that the IRGC’s naval force had confiscated the unnamed vessel in Gulf waters.
“The captain and crew of this foreign tanker are also detained as investigations and legal procedures are being completed,” he said in a video message released by the semi-official Tasnim news website, while flanked by IRGC and judiciary personnel on the ship’s deck.
The nationality of the vessel or its crew was not announced, but Ghahremani said the value of its cargo amounted to 2.2 trillion rials (about $6.6m).
Tasnim also released a clip that showed the smuggled fuel on the tanker.
“All vessels which have delivered fuel to the violating tanker will also be subject to prosecution,” the judiciary official said.
Ghahremani said the arrested smugglers will be slapped with a financial penalty of up to 10 times the value of the confiscated cargo in addition to receiving jail sentences, while the vessel will be seized in favour of the Iranian government.
He also described the bust as a “major blow” to organized fuel