A US court has sentenced Avtandil Kalandadze, a Georgian national and captain of the tanker Marinera (Bella 1), to 10 months’ imprisonment followed by deportation. This was reported by the specialist publication Maritime Executive.
According to the publication, 47-year-old Kalandadze commanded the crew of the Bella 1 from September until the end of December 2025. He was found guilty of fleeing from the US Coast Guard and failing to comply with an order to stop the vessel. He pleaded guilty to one charge – failing to comply with an order from the US Coast Guard.
The US prosecution alleged that Kalandadze had transported around 1.8 million barrels of Iranian oil to Asian countries. Furthermore, according to the investigation, he used common methods to conceal the tanker’s activities, including deactivating the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and concealing the vessel’s name, Bella 1, whilst transferring Iranian oil to another vessel.
The tanker Marinera, formerly known as Bella 1, left Iran in August 2025 and set course for Venezuela. On 21 December, the US attempted to intercept the vessel in the Caribbean Sea. In response, the tanker’s crew switched off the GPS trackers and turned the vessel towards the Atlantic Ocean. On the fourth day of the pursuit, the vessel was re-registered to a Russian company: the tanker’s owner was changed from a Turkish company subject to US sanctions to the Ryazan-based firm ‘Burevestmarin’. It was registered in July 2025, with Russian national Ilya Bugaya listed as its owner.
The Kremlin called on the US to cease its pursuit of the tanker, sent a diplomatic note to Washington and, according to media reports, subsequently dispatched a submarine to the North Sea to escort the tanker. Despite this, on 7 January, the vessel was detained off the coast of Scotland.
There were 28 people on board the tanker – 17 Ukrainian nationals, six Georgian nationals, three Indian nationals and two Russian nationals. All of them, with the exception of Kalandadze and one other crew member, were released. Kalandadze’s wife attempted to challenge the legality of his detention in a British court, but the claim was dismissed.
The tanker Marinera was one of the first vessels detained by the United States as part of a campaign to target ships in the so-called ‘shadow fleet’ transporting Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil, which is subject to sanctions. As of February 2026, the US had detained eight tankers involved in the transport of Venezuelan oil.