PARIS: An intercepted oil tanker suspected of belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet headed Saturday to a port in southern France for police to inspect, French authorities said.
The tanker, the Grinch, was intercepted Thursday morning in international waters between Spain and North Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on X.
French prosecutors suspect it of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet, a network of vessels Moscow is accused of using to dodge sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.
The French navy was escorting it on Saturday evening toward the port of Fos-sur-Mere near Marseille, where it was scheduled to arrive later in the day, the regional maritime prefecture said in a statement.
It will be anchored and kept at the disposal of the Marseille public prosecutor as part of a preliminary investigation for failure to fly a flag, it added.
The prefecture said nautical and air exclusion zones had been established around the anchorage site.
Some 598 vessels suspected of belonging to the shadow fleet are under European Union sanctions.
Authorities said the 249-meter-long Grinch appears under that name on a UK sanctions list of Russian shadow?fleet vessels, but as Carl on lists compiled by the EU and the United States.