The Iranian Revolutionary Guards announced on Friday that they had arrested seven crew members after seizing a second gasoline smuggling vessel in the Gulf in as many weeks.

Guards publicist Gholamhossein Hosseini was reported by state news agency IRNA as saying, “Naval forces have seized a vessel carrying smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf.

“During the inspection of this vessel, 250,000 liters (66,000 gallons) of smuggled fuel were discovered,” he said, adding that “seven crew members of this vessel are also in detention to complete the investigation process and legal steps”.

It is the intellectual wing of Iran’s military that is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“The fight against smuggling, especially of fuel, in the Persian Gulf is one of the important missions of the IRGC Navy,” Hosseini said.

He didn’t say when the boat was seized, where it was from, or who was on board.

Following a wave of ship seizures in the Gulf of Mexico’s shipping channels, where a substantial amount of the world’s oil is produced and shipped.

Iran announced last week that it had seized a foreign yacht carrying over 220,000 litres of illicit fuel and arrested 11 of its crew members, but provided no further details.

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