Crew paints Russian flag on Iran-linked tanker pursued by US

Washington's efforts to board an oil tanker in the Atlantic have become complicated after its crew painted a Russian flag on the ship's side, US officials said Tuesday.

The Bella 1 has evaded the Coast Guard for more than 10 days since refusing an interception attempt near Venezuela on 21 December.

The crew applied a Russian tricolour to the hull and now asserts the vessel operates under Russian authority, according to US media reports.

Washington had obtained a court order permitting seizure based on the tanker's history of moving Iranian crude, but the flag complicates enforcement under maritime law.

The vessel was approaching Venezuela without cargo when Coast Guard personnel moved to board. Instead of stopping, the ship reversed direction and headed into open ocean.

US Coast Guard tracked the tanker at roughly 800 metres distance while Washington determines the vessel's legal status through diplomatic channels.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea permits authorities to board ships flying false flags or operating without valid registration. If Russia formally registered Bella 1, forcible boarding could trigger diplomatic tensions.

The US Treasury sanctioned the tanker in 2024 for allegedly moving Iranian oil on behalf of Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Turkey-based Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises owns the vessel. Most crew members come from Russia, India and Ukraine, one official said.

Destination Curaçao and abrupt course change

Maritime tracking shows Bella 1 loaded Iranian crude at Kharg Island in September before disabling its location transponder near the Strait of Hormuz, according to analytics firm Kpler.

The ship remained undetected for two months. When signals resumed, the tanker was empty, suggesting it transferred cargo at sea to other vessels.

Bella 1 crossed into the Atlantic in early December and initially declared Curaçao as its destination. After US forces seized another tanker on 10 December, Bella 1 abruptly changed course.

The vessel's transponder has been off since 17 December. Officials believe it may be heading towards Iceland or Greenland based on its northwest trajectory.

Washington is assembling a Maritime Special Response Team capable of boarding vessels by force, including rappelling from helicopters onto hostile ships.

US President Donald Trump said Monday authorities will capture the tanker. "We'll end up getting it," he told reporters in Florida.

The pursuit marks the third such operation this month. US Coast Guard forces successfully intercepted two other tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, escorting both to Texas.

Tankers and narcoboats targeted

Washington has deployed its largest military presence in the region in decades and conducted strikes against suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned tankers trading with Venezuela on 17 December, aiming to cut off President Nicolás Maduro's primary revenue source.

Trump claimed Venezuela was "completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America" and demanded the country return "all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us."

Venezuela's government called the seizures acts of piracy.

Earlier in December, Maduro denounced on Telegram the "campaign of aggression that goes from psychological terrorism to corsairs attacking oil tankers."

Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said Caracas would report the operations to the UN Security Council.

Russia has been using its own shadow fleet of vessels, which employ opaque ownership structures, flags of convenience, and irregular shipping practices to transport Russian oil and circumvent Western sanctions following its all-out invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The fleet of hundreds of often ageing vessels has been crucial to Russia's ability to continue exporting oil and funding its war effort.