{"id":1654,"date":"2026-06-12T23:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=1654"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:06:20","slug":"shadow-fleet-captain-admits-to-fleeing-coast-guard-in-weeks-long-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=1654","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Shadow Fleet\u2019 Captain Admits To Fleeing Coast Guard In Weeks-Long Pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><!-- \/10519169\/dailycaller_incontent_1 --> <\/p>\n<p>The former captain of a sanctioned oil tanker has pleaded guilty to refusing U.S. Coast Guard commands while running from American forces across the Atlantic for weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=1652\">Actress Who Was Model For Disney\u2019s Animated Tinker Bell, Margaret Kerry, Dead At 97<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Avtandil Kalandadze, 47, a citizen of the Republic of Georgia, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell to failing to heave to a Coast Guard cutter, according to the Justice Department (DOJ). He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7 and faces up to five years behind bars before deportation.<\/p>\n<p>Kalandadze commanded the tanker Bella 1 from September through late December 2025, when it carried about 1.8 million barrels of Iranian oil to Asia, according to the federal plea deal. He hid the ship by switching off its tracking transponder and masking its name during an at-sea cargo handoff to a second vessel. <strong>(RELATED:US Boards Fleeing \u2018Shadow Fleet\u2019 Tanker Weeks After Maduro Raid)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Coast Guard cutter Munro caught the Bella 1 as it sailed toward Venezuela in December 2025, but the tanker ignored an order to stop and bolted across the Atlantic, the plea agreement read. Kalandadze destroyed documents aboard the ship and did not obey commands to heave to under orders from a company official, according to the DOJ. The vessel was captured Jan. 7.<\/p>\n<p> <!-- \/10519169\/dailycaller_incontent_2 --> <\/p>\n<p>Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg cast the plea as a warning to the network behind such ships. \u201cKalandadze\u2019s guilty plea today should serve as a warning to ghost fleet owners and operators and all those who man or otherwise support these dangerous, decrepit vessels,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Department of Justice and our interagency partners will pursue the ghost fleet from the Caribbean Sea to the North Atlantic, to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, to the Persian Gulf, and anywhere in between. You will not escape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=1650\">DOJ Approves Paramount Take Over Of Warner Bros<\/a><\/p>\n<p>After the tanker fled, she reportedly assumed a new identity as the Marinera with a Russian flag painted on one side, according to CNN. American forces seized her about 190 miles off Iceland, MarineTraffic data showed. U.S. officials said Russia sent out a submarine to provide the vessel escort as it approached Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors charged the captain in a Feb. 12 indictment that accused him of flying a false Guyanese flag at the December interception and failing to obey an order from the coast guard to halt the ship for boarding, according to The New York Times. The indictment was the first criminal case in President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u2019s crackdown on Venezuelan oil shipments.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/10519169\/dailycaller_incontent_3 --> <\/p>\n<p>The \u201cshadow fleet\u201d is a network of aging tankers that move oil for sanctioned governments such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela while evading Western oversight, according to NBC News. The ships reportedly often disable their tracking signals and pass cargo between vessels at sea to disguise where their oil shipments came from.<\/p>\n<p>A Scottish court sent out an interim order on Jan. 26 meant to block Kalandadze\u2019s removal from U.K. jurisdiction so that his detention could be reviewed, his wife\u2019s lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said, Reuters reported. The court allegedly revoked it the next day after learning Kalandadze had already been taken aboard the Munro and moved beyond British waters. Anwar claimed he had \u201cin essence, been abducted by the U.S. government on Scottish and British territory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=1648\">Pope Praises Conservative Legal Fund\u2019s Efforts To Defend Religious Liberty<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Georgian tanker captain pleaded guilty to fleeing the US Coast Guard across the Atlantic for weeks while hauling sanctioned oil tied to Iran and Venezuela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2017,225,289,1392],"class_list":["post-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-captain","tag-oil","tag-tanker","tag-venezuela"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Shadow Fleet\u2019 Captain Admits To Fleeing Coast Guard In Weeks-Long Pursuit - 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