Overview
- British Royal Marine commandos and National Crime Agency officers boarded the Cameroon‑flagged tanker Smyrtos in a six‑hour operation on Sunday and the vessel is now provisionally held at an anchorage off England’s south coast for monitoring and investigation.
- The operation was backed by RAF and naval assets including Chinook, Merlin Mk4 and Wildcat helicopters, an RAF P‑8 patrol plane, HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.
- The Ministry of Defence said the boarding relied on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea’s right of visit and on domestic sanctions and maritime enforcement powers.
- Officials stressed the action was carried out in close coordination with French authorities, building on recent allied interdictions of shadow‑fleet tankers.
- UK ministers say the shadow fleet of aging, often opaque tankers carries most sanctioned Russian oil and that stepped‑up interdictions aim to choke Kremlin revenues while raising questions about environmental risk, legal hurdles, crew status and the cost of holding vessels.