In the third such occurrence this month, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) guarantees that the Persian Gulf will never be a safe haven for smugglers, seizing a foreign vessel in the northern part of the waterway for smuggling 200,000 gallons of fuel.
Colonel Gholam Hossein Hosseini, the head of the IRGC’s second naval zone’s public relations department, told Fars news agency on Sunday that the vessel’s eight crew members had been arrested and taken to the southern Iranian port city of Bushehr, where they would be handed over to judicial authorities for a thorough investigation and legal proceedings.
Five other boats that were planning to refuel the foreign-flagged vessel were also detained for further inquiry, according to him.
Fighting fuel smuggling is a primary priority for the IRGC Navy, according to the official, in order to support the country’s national industry and economy.
The Persian Gulf’s coastlines and adjacent waterways, according to Hosseini, “shall never be a safe haven for profiteers and smugglers.”
In the Persian Gulf on April 15, the IRGC apprehended a vessel carrying 250,000 gallons of smuggled petroleum and imprisoned seven of its crew members.
It happened just days after the IRGC captured the whole 11-member crew of a foreign vessel carrying 220,000 litres of smuggled petroleum in the Persian Gulf region.
Several attacks on Iranian and international tankers have also been foiled by the IRGC Navy.
It just released footage of its operation against an American act of piracy in October that targeted an Iranian fuel shipment. During the incident, US forces intercepted a tanker transporting Iranian oil in the strategically important Sea of Oman, transferring the cargo to another vessel.
The IRGC then launched a marine operation against the second tanker, landing its helicopters on the ship’s deck and guiding it into Iranian waters.
