Exclusive:Captain of seized oil tanker facing prison after US court plea
Court proceedings follow dramatic North Atlantic operation by US forces
The captain of a Russian-flagged tanker that was detained in Scotland after being seized by American authorities in a dramatic raid in the North Atlantic has pleaded guilty to refusing to obey orders from the US Coast Guard.
Avtandil Kalandadze was at the helm of the Marinera vessel when it was boarded by US forces as it travelled through the waters between Scotland and Iceland earlier this year. The Georgian national was apprehended by authorities, with the tanker escorted to the Moray Firth.
US officials have said the ghost-fleet tanker, formerly known as Bella 1, had historically been used to transport oil from Iran and Venezuela, with Kalandadze helping to transfer approximately 1.8 million barrels of Iranian oil to Asia during his time as master of the vessel.
After the tanker and its crew were intercepted in January, the Court of Session in Edinburgh rejected a request brought by lawyers acting for Kalandadze’s wife, Natia Dzadzamia, to stop the US removing her husband from Scottish jurisdiction.
An interim interdict was granted by judge Lord Young prohibiting the Advocate General for Scotland, the Lord Advocate and Scottish ministers - or anyone acting on their behalf - from removing the captain and the crew of the Marinera from the territorial jurisdiction of the court.
However, the order was later recalled after it emerged Kalandadze and his first mate had already departed UK waters on a US Coast Guard vessel, prompted criticism from solicitor Aamer Anwar, acting on behalf of Ms Dzadzamia, who said the two men had been “whisked away under the cover of darkness.”
Now, US lawyers representing Kalandadze have filed a guilty plea for failing to heave to a US Coast Guard cutter, with the 47 year-old set to be sentenced next month. The maximum penalty is five years in prison, and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has said he will be deported at the completion of his prison term.
According to the plea agreement lodged with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Kalandadze served as master of the tanker from September 2025 until late December that year, during which time it was transporting Iranian oil. The document said the Georgian continued to participate in the piloting and operation of the tanker up until 7 January, when it was seized as part of a series of US operations in the North Atlantic and Caribbean.
The seizure of the tanker, follwing an investigation by the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security, made headlines around the world earlier this year, but the DoJ said it was the culmination of a high-profile pursuit that went on for several weeks. The tanker was initially intercepted by the US Coast Guard in December 2025 when it was en route to Venezuela, but “fled” across the Atlantic.
The court filing said Kalandadze was “acting at the direction of one or more individuals who were commanding the movement” of the tanker, and that he took “multiple steps” to conceal the fact it was transporting Iranian oil, such as sailing with its automatic identification system deactivated.
It also said Kalandadze directed members of his crew to physically conceal the name of the Bella 1 while engaging in a ship-to-ship transfer of the Iranian oil, a practice described as a “common obfuscation technique when transporting illicit oil.”
The plea agreement goes on to state that Kalandadze “knowingly failed” to obey orders to heave to the US Coast Guard cutter, Munro, and acting on the direction of a so-called ‘operator’, destroyed records and information that were onboard the vessel.
The DoJ said the tanker was apprehended after a “multi-week pursuit” spanning the Caribbean Sea through to the North Atlantic. John A. Eissenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, warned other so-called ghost fleet tankers that they would be targeted by US authorities.
“Kalandadze’s guilty plea should serve as a warning to ghost fleet owners and operators and all those who man or otherwise support these dangerous, decrepit vessels,” he said. “The Department for Justice and our interagency partners will pursue the ghost fleet and its facilitators from the Caribbean to the North Atlantic, to the Indian and Pacific oceans, the Persian Guild, and anywhere in between. You will not escape”
Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence and espionage division, said Kalandadze had used a “range of deceptive maritime tactics” to try and evade the US Coast Guard and move millions of barrels of illicit oil tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other sanctioned actors engaged in terrorism.”
Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, said Kalandadze had put the lives of US sailors and members of the US Coast Guard at risk while attempting to evade US sanctions and move illicit oil.
She said: “By refusing lawful orders from the US Coast Guard and leading them on a chase across the Atlantic Ocean, he not only obstructed federal law enforcement, but forced our service members to carry out a dangerous boarding operation in heavy seas.
“The guilty plea makes clear that those who endanger American service members and attempt to undermine our sanctions laws will be held fully accountable.”
John Condon, acting deputy executive associate director of the US Department of Homeland Security’s investigations unit, added: “Kalandadze led the US Coast Guard on a reckless weeks-long chase across the Atlantic, endangering servicemembers’ lives all to turn a profit on sanctioned oil for the benefit of US adversaries.”
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