The Indian Coast Guard seized three tankers that it mentioned had been concerned in oil smuggling, the primary signal of the nation getting powerful on the so-called darkish fleet.
The three ships had been taken within the waters off Mumbai on Friday by the coast guard, which mentioned in a publish on X that it had “busted a global oil-smuggling racket” and that the vessels had been identified to “often change identification.”
It’s the primary time New Delhi has taken such motion, in keeping with folks conversant in the Indian delivery trade, and comes because the US and Europe lead an effort to get more durable on vessels shifting sanctioned oil. Many darkish fleet tankers have sub-standard documentation, improper or pretend flag registrations and poor upkeep, posing safety and maritime security dangers.
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The seizures are additionally occurring as Washington pressures New Delhi to cease taking Russian crude, as a part of a deal to chop import tariffs on the South Asian nation. India mentioned early final 12 months that it wouldn’t enable sanctioned tankers to discharge at its ports.
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The coast guard didn’t identify the vessels it had seized, however shared photographs of them in its publish. The images matched previous pictures of the Chiltern, Asphalt Star and Stellar Ruby that may be discovered on MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking intelligence platform.
Ship-intelligence platform TankerTracker.com recognized the identical vessels by means of their distinctive seven-digit IMO numbers.
All three ships had been sanctioned by Washington final 12 months for hyperlinks to the Iranian oil commerce.
No person responded to emails looking for remark at places of work of the registered house owners of the tankers as listed on the Equasis database. Calls made to the house owners and supervisor of Chiltern and Asphalt Star had been directed to voice mail. Calls made to the proprietor and supervisor of Stellar Ruby weren’t answered.
The three vessels seized by the Indian Coast Guard had been being escorted to Mumbai for additional investigation, a spokesperson mentioned on Monday.
The so-called shadow, or darkish, fleet is a gaggle of round 1,500 tankers that carry Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil all over the world. Malaysian authorities launched two getting old tankers earlier this month that it had detained for conducting a ship-to-ship switch of oil with out permission.
On 06 Feb 26, @IndiaCoastGuard busted an Worldwide oil-smuggling racket in a meticulously coordinated sea–air operation. The syndicate exploited mid-sea transfers in worldwide waters to maneuver low-cost oil from battle ridden areas to motor tankers, evading duties owed to… pic.twitter.com/erJ31U4xyH
— Indian Coast Guard (@IndiaCoastGuard) February 7, 2026
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