Overview
- U.S. forces boarded the ship now called Marinera between Iceland and Scotland, with officials saying law enforcement personnel remain on board after a helicopter insertion reported by Reuters and shown by Russia’s RT.
- The vessel was previously known as Bella 1 and is under U.S. sanctions over Iranian oil; it refused a Coast Guard boarding on December 21 in the Caribbean, triggering the chase.
- Russian units, including a submarine, were reported nearby as Moscow had moved to escort the tanker and later asserted the ship’s right to navigate in international waters.
- Tracking data had placed the tanker on a northeast course in the North Atlantic, and officials said it was empty when taken under U.S. control about 200 kilometers south of Iceland.
- The ship’s crew had repainted the hull with a Russian flag, renamed it Marinera, and added it to a Russian registry, steps cited by U.S. sources as attempts to complicate enforcement; officials also reported a separate interception of a Venezuela‑linked tanker in Latin American waters.