Italy confiscated a Russian ship with illegal metal.

In Italy, law enforcement officers specializing in financial crimes confiscated a ship from Oceania that arrived from the Russian Federation with a cargo of 33,000 tons of iron alloys. Ship violated EU restrictions, and his crew tried to hide the ship’s course.

In Italy, the Fiscal Guard and the Customs Service of Brindisi recently confiscated in the port of the administrative center of Apulia a vessel flying the flag of a small island state in Oceania, which arrived from Russian waters in the Black Sea, reports UNNreferring to RaiNews.

Details The vessel was allegedly “carrying 33,000 tons of ferrous metals, which were being transported in violation of restrictions imposed against the Russian Federation following the invasion of Ukraine.”

The “urgent preventive seizure” was confirmed by the Brindisi investigating judge and ratified by the Court of Appeal. According to information, the importer, the shipowner and some crew members are under investigation on charges of circumventing the restrictive measures of the European Union.

After the vessel’s arrival at the port of Brindisi, the customs authority checked the import declaration for any prohibitions and restrictions, taking into account both the type of goods being transported and their geographical origin.

According to the Italian financial police, subsequent checks revealed “significant discrepancies, forgeries and changes in the ship’s documents.” “In particular, the inspection of a number of documents by the Guardia di Finanza and the analysis of data obtained from the navigation system confirmed that the ship was in Novorossiysk (a sanctioned port of the Russian Federation) from November 13 to 16, 2025, carrying out prohibited cargo loading operations,” the message states.

Further audits and satellite analysis also reportedly showed that the AIS system – a GPS transponder that allows ships to identify themselves and provide their location, direction and speed in real time – was turned off near the Russian port of Novorossiysk, likely to avoid geolocation and complicate the control activities of the relevant authorities. Further confirmation of this was obtained by consulting the Lloyd’s S&P Global Maritime database used by the country’s customs agency.

All performed investigative actions made it possible to “accurately reproduce the route and actions of the vessel in violation of the EU Regulation on restrictions against the Russian Federation, despite the captain’s false statements and attempts to obstruct the proceedings by falsifying documents and turning off the transponder.”