Fox News: Iranian tankers posing as Iraqi vessels in oil smuggling scheme

Iran is using a large-scale oil smuggling operation worth around $800 million to bypass international sanctions, with tankers disguising themselves as Iraqi vessels in order to slip through maritime monitoring systems, Fox News reports.

According to the outlet, Tehran has developed a sophisticated concealment system in which tankers under US sanctions falsify their location data. Signals from the ships indicate they are anchored off the coast of Iraq, while in reality they are being loaded in Iranian ports, experts from the maritime analytics company Windward AI explained.

Intelligence has identified four large VLCC-class tankers involved in the scheme: Alicia, RHN, Star Forest, and Aqua. These vessels use fraudulent registries from countries such as Curacao and Malawi.

“For the four VLCCs, each VLCC can hold about 2 million barrels, so four of them would hold 8 million barrels worth about $800 million at $100 per barrel,” Windward AI said.

The intelligence firm also pointed to a wider “cluster” of vessels operating west of the Strait of Hormuz. A group of ten ships is said to be creating false historical tracking data. The vessels broadcast messages indicating Iraqi port destinations, while their actual route leads to Iran.

“By broadcasting fake destination messages to Iraqi ports, the tankers appear to be in Iraqi waters while covertly sailing to Iran to load sanctioned oil,” the maritime company added.

By Jeyhun Aghazada