Iranian authorities reported Monday that they have seized a foreign-flagged oil tanker carrying some 11 million liters of smuggled crude oil off the country’s coast in the Persian Gulf.
Judge Mojtaba Ghahrani has indicated that the ship has been intercepted after a month of technical work, according to information from the Tasnim news agency, which said that the ship has been detained by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Naval Force.
«The information received pointed to illegal activities carried out by oil companies and measures have been taken to protect the legal rights of the government, and measures will be taken in this regard,» he said.
In this sense, he has warned that these «criminal actions will come to light», so the «punishment of the perpetrators of these crimes will be decisive». «There will be no tolerance,» he added.
Currently, both the ship’s captain and the entire crew are in police custody as authorities investigate the case in depth.