Italian police seize Brindisi ship over suspected breach of EU Russia sanctions

In a move that underlines intensifying European enforcement of sanctions tied to the Ukraine conflict, Italian financial police and Customs carried out an emergency preventive seizure of a cargo vessel in the port of Brindisi on 17 January. Prosecutors in Brindisi coordinated the inquiry and a local judge, later affirmed by an appeals court, upheld the legality of the preventive measure.

Authorities cited evidence from navigation data and on-board documentation suggesting the ship had called at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and engaged in loading operations that are restricted under EU Regulation No. 833/2014 and subsequent sanctions packages. The vessel was carrying ferrous metal and metal raw materials, with most reports placing the cargo at about 33,000 tonnes; a single outlying figure of 33 tonnes appears inconsistent with the bulk-carrier profile described by investigators.

Italian investigators say checks of the ship’s logs and electronic systems raised red flags. Guardia di Finanza analysts reportedly extracted navigation data showing a prior presence in Novorossiysk and noted alleged inconsistencies, falsifications and alterations in documents related to stopovers and loading. Some accounts indicate the ship’s electronic navigation equipment had been switched off during the contested port call, a tactic authorities say could have been used to avoid geolocation and hinder checks by competent authorities. Customs authorities removed the vessel’s import declaration on arrival to enable a full inspection and risk assessment.

The seizure has placed the importer, the vessel’s owner and several crew members under investigation on suspicion of evading compliance with the EU restrictive measures. Formal charges or indictments have not been publicly detailed. Prosecutors will now assess commercial records, hire forensic analysis of electronic data and pursue legal steps that could include criminal or administrative sanctions depending on evidentiary findings.

While Italian releases have not named the ship or its flag, monitoring services and open-source vessel trackers identify the likely vessel as the bulk carrier HIZIR REIS, which these sources link to the Turkish company Emiroglu Shipping, and indicate the ship flew the flag of a small oceanic island state commonly used in global shipping registries. Tuvalu has been suggested as the flag state by those trackers; Italian authorities have not confirmed either the vessel’s name or registry in their statements. Reported dates for the Novorossiysk call vary in open-source accounts; most official summaries indicate presence between 13 and 16 January, while one source gave an earlier November date. The court rulings cited by Italian authorities, however, sustain the preventive seizure as lawful pending further inquiry.

The case highlights persistent enforcement challenges in policing maritime flows under sanctions regimes: opaque flag registrations, the global fragmentation of ship ownership, the ease of disguising port histories and the intermittent disabling of tracking systems. For Brussels and member states, the Brindisi action will be read as a signal that coastal enforcement and judicial follow-through can disrupt suspected sanction-evasion chains. For exporters, insurers and supply chains dependent on bulk metals, the incident also underscores new legal and reputational risks when routing and documentation do not match regulatory requirements. International legal and diplomatic follow-up is likely, particularly if the probe confirms links to non-EU owners or flag states that may face pressure to tighten oversight of vessels registered under their flags.