THE CAPTAIN of a Russian-flagged tanker that was detained in Scotland has pleaded guilty to refusing to obey orders from the US Coast Guard.
It comes after a dramatic raid in the North Atlantic when the Marinera vessel was boarded by US forces after it travelled through the waters between Scotland and Iceland earlier this year.
Avtandil Kalandadze, a Georgian national, was apprehended by authorities in January. The Marinera was later escorted into the Moray Firth.
The Court of Session in Edinburgh would later reject a request on behalf of lawyers acting for his wife, Natia Dzadzamia, to stop the US removing Kalandadze from Scottish jurisdiction.
Judge Lord Young granted an interim interdict prohibiting the Advocate General for Scotland, Lord Advocate and Scottish ministers, or anyone acting on their behalf, from removing the captain and Marinera crew from the court’s jurisdiction.
The order was later recalled after it emerged Kalandadze and his first mate had already departed UK waters. Solicitor Aamer Anwar, acting on behalf of Dzadzamia, said the two men had been “whisked away under the cover of darkness.”
The Scotland on Sunday reports that US lawyers representing Kalandadze have filed a guilty plea for failing to heave to a US Coast Guard cutter. The 47-year-old is due to be sentenced next month, with the maximum penalty five years in prison.
The Department of Justice has said he will be deported once he has completed his prison term.
The newspaper reports that the plea agreement – lodged with the US District Court for the District of Columbia – states that Kalandadze was in charge of the tanker from September 2025 until late December that year, while it transported Iranian oil.
During that time he participated in the piloting and operation of the tanker up until January 7, when it was seized by the US Coast Guard.
The court filing said Kalandadze was “acting at the direction of one or more individuals who were commanding the movement” of the vessel.
It states that he took “multiple steps” to conceal the fact it was transporting Iranian oil, such as sailing with its automatic identification system deactivated.
It adds that he “knowingly failed” to obey orders to heave to the US Coast Guard and acting on the direction of an “operator”, he destroyed records and information that were onboard the tanker.
John A Eissenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, said: “Kalandadze’s guilty plea should serve as a warning to ghost fleet owners and operators and all those who man or otherwise support these dangerous, decrepit vessels.
“The Department for Justice and our interagency partners will pursue the ghost fleet and its facilitators from the Caribbean to the North Atlantic, to the Indian and Pacific oceans, the Persian Guild, and anywhere in between. You will not escape.”
