A U.S. federal court sentenced the captain of the shadow fleet tanker Marinera — formerly known as the Bella 1 (IMO: 9230880) — to 10 months in prison, to be followed by deportation, The Maritime Executive reported on Aug. 10. The captain, Avtandil Kalandadze, a 47-year-old Georgian citizen, pleaded guilty in June to one count of refusing to “heave to,” a maritime term meaning to stop or slow a vessel and hold position, after the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro ordered him to do so. He had faced up to five years in prison.
Kalandadze commanded the Bella 1 from September through late December 2025. The tanker was headed to Venezuela when the Munro tried to stop it as part of a U.S. maritime blockade. The vessel did not comply and crossed the Atlantic, prompting a Coast Guard pursuit.
During the crossing, the tanker changed its name from Bella 1 to Marinera and was re-registered under the Russian flag. On Jan. 7, U.S. forces boarded the vessel between Iceland and the British Isles. The Insider reported at the time that the operation, carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. military with support from British forces, followed a chase that had lasted for more than two weeks. Media reports said Russian warships and a submarine were also heading to the area, but U.S. forces seized the tanker before they arrived.
As it was being pursued, the Marinera attempted to conceal its route. Satellite data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence provided to The Insider showed no stable AIS signal in the North Atlantic, and the vessel abruptly changed course on the day of the operation.
U.S. prosecutors also alleged that while Kalandadze was commanding the Bella 1, the tanker carried about 1.8 million barrels of Iranian-origin oil to Asia. Prosecutors said the crew turned off AIS and hid the vessel’s name during a ship-to-ship transfer, a practice in which oil or other cargo is moved between vessels at sea — a tactic that can be used to obscure the cargo’s origin. In 2024, the United States imposed sanctions on the registered owner of the Bella 1, Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises, for carrying sanctioned cargoes on behalf of Hezbollah. U.S. authorities classify the vessel as part of the “shadow fleet,” a term used for tankers that try to evade sanctions or restrictions on oil shipments.
How the vessel is linked to Russia
After the tanker was detained, it emerged that the current owner of the Bella 1/Marinera was the Russian company Burevestmarin. Its founder and owner is Ilya Bugai, who previously lived in Crimea and now lives in Moscow. Since 2018, Bugai has also headed Rusneftekhimtorg, a company involved in trading petroleum products.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the investigative project Systema found that Rusneftekhimtorg sold fuel to entities linked to Viktor Baransky, a former Odesa City Council deputy and associate of Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Vladimir Putin. Companies linked to Baransky were sanctioned by the United States in 2021 for transporting Venezuelan oil. Through other commercial ties, Rusneftekhimtorg also overlapped with entities linked to fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor.
In a comment to The Insider, maritime shipping expert Mark Douglas noted the tanker’s Russian registration — and Russia’s silence in response to the ship’s seizure:
“What is interesting is that the tanker was supposedly flagged to Russia (following a questionable mid-sea reflagging) but that hasn’t stopped the prosecution, and Russia has stayed very quiet about the whole thing.”
After the seizure, the tanker was towed to the United States. In early June, it returned to sea under the name Era, flying the flag of the Comoros Islands. According to Equasis data, its current owner is listed as Global Marketing Systems, and the vessel’s status is “to be broken up.”
