Up to 800 “dark fleet” vessels under sanctions are operating worldwide and only a small percentage have been interdicted, a senior US Coast Guard officer said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump in December ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil vessels heading to and from Venezuela, as he launched a campaign that has seen American forces take control of seven ships so far.
 |
| Source: Pixabay |
“We estimate that there’s probably about 600 or 800 sanctioned dark fleet vessels… between Iran and Venezuela, China and Russia,” Rear Admiral David Barata told a congressional hearing.
“It’s a very small percentage” of vessels that have been seized, he said.
The “dark fleet” ships use various means to conceal their locations and identities: “They use false documents, they use false ownership. They claim the numbers of vessels that have already been destroyed,” Barata said.
Washington has deployed a huge naval force in the Caribbean, striking boats it says are used for drug trafficking, seizing sanctioned tankers and carrying out a stunning operation that captured Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3.
Among the vessels seized by the United States in recent weeks was a Russia-linked ship, which US forces captured in the North Atlantic after pursuing it from off of Venezuela’s coast.
France’s navy meanwhile interdicted a Russia-linked tanker in the Mediterranean last month, escorting it to a French port, after detaining another vessel with ties to Moscow in September.
Оригинальная статья: Up to 800 ‘dark fleet’ vessels operating worldwide: US Coast Guard on Planet Today 🚀
Автоматически переопубликовано из основного блога.
