Suspected Russian shadow tanker captain detained by France

French officials have detained the Indian captain of a suspected Russian Shadow Fleet oil tanker days after the vessel was seized.

On Thursday, the French navy intercepted the oil tanker, the Grinch, which President Emmanuel Macron said was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag.”

The Grinch sailed from the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk across the Mediterranean Sea. It is now anchored in a southern French port near Marseille and is under guard.

Although Moscow has yet to comment, Macron said on Thursday that the Shadow Fleet helped “finance Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.”

The rest of the ship’s crew – all Indians – were “remained on board” while the 58-year-old captain was detained, the Marseille prosecutor’s office said.

“The investigation aims to verify the validity of the flag used by the tanker,” the prosecutor said. French media reported that the ship sailed under the flag of the Comoros Islands.

Officials said navigation and no-air zones have been established around the anchorage.

Announce Seizure on Thursday“We are determined to uphold international law and ensure the effective implementation of sanctions,” Macron said.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian energy.

In early January, British armed forces supported the United States in seizing a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean that U.S. officials said was violating sanctions by transporting oil to Venezuela and Russia.

Last October, France seizes another sanctioned tanker, Boracayoff its west coast, and released it a few days later.

Shadow fleets are becoming increasingly common, with Venezuela, Iran and Russia all accused of using them to evade oil sanctions.

Financial intelligence firm S&P Global estimates that one in five tankers worldwide is used to smuggle oil from sanctioned countries.