The US has seized the Russian oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1), bound for Venezuela, after being pursued for two weeks.
Reuters journalist Idris Ali wrote about this.
Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson confirmed the same information. According to him, American military personnel have already boarded the ship.
Updated at 4:20 PM: The US Army European Command confirmed that it has detained the Marinera in the North Atlantic.
Earlier that day, the BBC reported that Russia had sent a submarine and several naval vessels to escort the oil tanker.
The ship is suspected of violating US sanctions and transporting Iranian oil. The ship previously transported Venezuelan oil, but is now sailing empty.
After the sanctions, the tanker not only changed its name but also re-registered from the Guyanese flag to the Russian one. The US tried to seize it in the Caribbean in December and had a warrant for its arrest. Since then, the ship has changed course dramatically.
The Russians claimed that the ship was in international waters and operating "in accordance with international law", and called the attention from the US and NATO military "disproportionate".
- On January 5, off the coast of Venezuela, another tanker, the Hyperion, also changed its flag to the Russian one in an attempt to avoid detention, wrote “gCaptain”, a publication specializing in the maritime industry.
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