Iran's IRGC Detains Foreign Ship Carrying Smuggled Fuel

According to the semi-official Fars news agency, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has arrested a foreign vessel in the Gulf for reportedly smuggling 200,000 gallons of petroleum.

"[The ship's] eight crew members have been handed over to legal authorities in the southern port city of Bushehr," Gholamhossein Hosseini told Fars, without specifying the crew members' nationalities.

He went on to say that the ship was seized in the Gulf's northern reaches.

Iran has been fighting massive fuel smuggling by land to neighbouring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states, despite having some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to substantial subsidies and the depreciation of its national currency.

Several ships have been seized by the Coast Guard in recent weeks for smuggling petroleum in the Gulf.