Brindisi: ship seized for violation of EU sanctions against Russia
The Financial Police and the Brindisi Customs Agency have in recent days a ship flying the flag of a small island in Oceania, coming from the Russian territorial waters of the Black Sea, was seized in the port of the Apulian capitaland the related load of 33,000 tons of ferrous material transported in violation of the sanctions adopted against the Russian Federation following the invasion of Ukraine. EU Regulation 833/2014 and subsequent additions provide for the ban on carrying out commercial operations in certain locations, including some ports in the Russian Federationand to import certain categories of goods, as well as the application of sanctions against a series of natural and legal persons included in “black lists”.
The “urgent preventive seizure” was validated by the investigating judge of Brindisi and confirmed by the Court of Review; the importer, the owner and some members of the crew are under investigation on charges of having evaded the restrictive measures of the European Union.
Upon arrival of the motor vessel in the port of Brindisi, the import declaration was selected by the analysis systems of the Customs Agency in order to verify any bans and restrictions. Subsequent checks, carried out by the Financial Police and the Brindisi Customs Agency, revealed serious inconsistencies, falsification and alterations of on-board documentation relating to the places of rest and carrying out the loading operations of the goods.
In particular, the check carried out by the Guardia di Finanza soldiers on a whole series of ship documents, as well as the analysis of the data extracted from the Ecdis system (mandatory electronic navigation system on large ships), made it possible to ascertain that the ship stopped and operated in the port of Novorossiysk (a port of the Russian Federation subjected to sanctions) from 13 to 16 November 2025, carrying out prohibited cargo loading operations.
It also emerged that the motor vessel’s AIS system (i.e. the GPS transponder that allows ships to identify themselves and provide their position, route and speed in real time) had been deactivated near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, plausibly with the intention of evading geolocation and hindering the control activity of the competent authorities.
All the investigations carried out allowed us to reconstruct the route exactly and the operations carried out by the motor vessel in violation of the Community Regulation regarding sanctions against the Russian Federation, despite the misleading statements of the commander of the same vessel and attempts to obstruct the facts by altering documents and turning off the transponder. Therefore, the motor vessel and the entire load were subjected to seizure, validated by the Brindisi investigating judge and confirmed by the Review Court. The importer, the owner and some members of the crew are under investigation, in collaboration with each other, for having evaded the restrictive measures of the European Union.
