Swedish authorities board sanctioned Russian ship in national waters

Authorities were inspecting the cargo on Friday when a Russian freighter anchored in Swedish waters due to engine problems, according to Sweden’s customs service.

According to Martin Hoglund, a customs authority spokesman, the owners of the ship, the Adler, are on the list of countries” potential sanctions.

We boarded the ship with the assistance of the Swedish Coast Guard and the police service last night, according to Hoglund, and we performed a customs inspection shortly after 00:00 GMT. The inspection is still ongoing, it seems.

Hoglund declined to disclose what the ship’s customs service had discovered.

The Adler is a 126-meter-long, roll-on, roll-off container carrier, according to ship-tracking company Marine Traffic. Off Hoganas in southwest Sweden, it is anchored.

Sanctions from the EU and the US

According to OpenSanctions, a database of sanctioned businesses and individuals, persons of interest, and government watchlists, the Adler and its owners, M Leasing LLC, are both subject to US sanctions and are both on an EU sanctions list.

Hoglund claimed the ship left St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 15, but he claimed customs had no knowledge of its destination.

The Swedish Customs Administration, the coastguard, the Swedish National Task Force, the Swedish Security Service, and prosecutors all took charge of the night-time operation.

In a previous incident, Greek forces had earlier boarded the Adler in the Mediterranean in January 2021. The operation was carried out as part of Operation Irini, an EU initiative that monitors Libya’s UN arms embargo.