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Mumbai. The Indian Coast Guard on Friday busted a big international oil smuggling ring. This action was taken during a joint operation conducted in sea and air surveillance. During this operation the Coast Guard has seized three ships. These ships were smuggling oil illegally in the sea near Mumbai.
How did this gang work?
Officials said that this gang used to buy cheap oil in large quantities from war-torn countries. They were earning huge profits by transferring this oil to other motor tankers in the middle of the international sea border. This entire network was being run by handlers sitting in different countries, who handled the sale and transfer of oil.
This is how the Coast Guard found out
Coast Guard vessels on Thursday intercepted three ships about 100 nautical miles west of Mumbai. The boarding team searched the ships and checked electronic data. Apart from this, the documents were examined and the crew was interrogated. This revealed the entire chain of criminals and their methods.
The Coast Guard’s technology-enabled system detected suspicious activity of a motor tanker in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone. Digital investigation revealed that two other vessels were also approaching this vessel and may be involved in illegal transfer of oil related cargo. Due to this, coastal countries including India were incurring huge duty losses.
On Thursday, special teams boarded the ships, verified the digital evidence and captured them. Now these ships will be brought to Mumbai, where customs and law enforcement agencies will conduct further investigation.
Investigation revealed that these ships often changed their identities so that law enforcement agencies of coastal countries could not catch them. Initial investigation revealed that the owners of the ships were in other countries.
