TEHRAN: Four crew members were detained when a ship “carrying smuggled fuel” was seized by Revolutionary Guards naval forces in the Gulf, according to local media.
According to Mojtaba Ghahramani, chief justice of the coastal Hormozgan province, “more than 50,000 litres of smuggled fuel were discovered” on board the ship, according to a report from Iranian News Agency.
According to him, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy “confiscated” the ship and “arrested four people” during the operation.
It was not immediately known where the ship came from or when the operation took place.
The petroleum would be routed to the nation’s “legal distribution network,” according to Ghahramani.
After accusing Iran of capturing or attempting to seize ships in the crucial waterway, the US Navy has recently increased its presence in the Gulf.
A day after accusing Iranian forces of making two identical efforts off the coast of Oman, the US Navy reported on July 6 that the IRGC had taken a commercial vessel in the Gulf.
Later on, Iran claimed that the ship that was intercepted in the Gulf was carrying “more than one million litres of smuggled fuel.”
