US seized cargo of two oil tankers

MIAMI — The U.S. has quietly seized the cargo of two tankers suspected of transporting Iranian oil as part of an elaborate sanctions-busting scheme involving forged documents and the repainting of a ship’s deck to cloak illegal shipments.

Details of the seizure, which has not been previously reported, were contained in a federal civil case unsealed last month after the Greek-managed vessels discharged their valuable cargo, worth upward of $38 million, in Houston and the Bahamas at the direction of U.S. law enforcement.

The seizure comes as the Biden administration seeks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that would likely entail the U.S. lifting punishing sanctions. That task has been made more urgent by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. decision to retaliate by banning all Russian oil imports, which potentially removes from Western markets more than 10 million barrels per day of oil. Some of that lost supply could be made up by Iran, which pumped an average 2.4 million barrels per day in 2021 though due to sanctions has been able to sell less than half of what it produces.

Opponents of Iran warn that even as Ukraine scrambles geopolitical calculations and the U.S. turns its attention to Russia, the Biden administration shouldn’t take pressure off the Islamic Republic. The country is considered by the U.S. a state sponsor of terrorism and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite military unit that plays a key role in the oil industry, a supporter of Hezbollah and other

militant groups active throughout the Middle East.