Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities have seized a foreign tanker in the Gulf of Oman for smuggling two million litres (around 528,000 gallons) of fuel, the chief justice of southern Hormozgan province said on Wednesday.

The vessel was intercepted ‘after legal documents related to its cargo were found to be incomplete’, said Mojtaba Ghahremani, according to the judiciary’s Mizan Online outlet.

Fuel smuggling by land to neighbouring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states is a persistent problem for authorities in Iran, where domestic fuel prices are among the lowest in the world owing to heavy subsidies.

What Iran said about the seizure?

Ghahremani said that said that the tanker was detected as part of routine monitoring along the Gulf of Oman.

“During the continuous process of monitoring and surveilling suspicious fuel smuggling movements in the Gulf of Oman, officers inspected a foreign tanker due to its lack of legal documents regarding its cargo and seized it on charges of carrying two million litres of smuggled fuel,” Ghahremani said, according a report carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

“Seventeen suspects, including the captain and crew of the foreign tanker, have been taken into custody,” Ghahremani said, without giving the identity and nationality of those arrested, or the name of the tanker and the flag under which it is registered.

He said a judicial case had been opened at the Jask county prosecutor’s office.

“The actions of fuel smugglers, who in coordination with foreigners, attempt to plunder national wealth will not remain hidden from the judiciary and punishment of perpetrators, if their crimes are proven, will be without leniency,” Ghahremani said, according to the report.

Other fuel smuggling incidents

The Wednesday seizure is not the first time Iranian authorities have taken over tankers whose crew was suspected of smuggling fuel.

In April, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two Tanzanian-flagged tankers for alleged fuel smuggling, later transferring the vessels – the Sea Ranger and Salama – to the port of Bushehr for legal proceedings.

The 1.5mn litres of diesel that the ships were alleged to be carrying were reportedly to be returned to the local fuel supply chain after being handed to the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company.

In November, Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman.

DW