Indian Seizure of Iranian “Shadow Fleet” Creates Opening for U.S.-Led Sanctions Enforcement Coalition
The Trump administration is reportedly considering whether to seize additional tankers carrying sanctioned Iranian oil. This comes on the heels of the Indian Coast Guard’s first-ever seizure of “shadow fleet” vessels carrying Iranian oil on February 6.
Indian authorities identified the three tankers — the Al Jafzia, Asphalt Star, and Stellar Ruby — as part of a smuggling ring that relied on illicit ship-to-ship transfers and frequent identity changes to move sanctioned Iranian crude.
All three were previously sanctioned by the United States for their ties to Iran. They form part of a 30-tanker fleet managed by Jugwinder Singh Brar, a UAE-based Indian national designated by the Treasury Department in April 2025 for operating in the petroleum sector of the Iranian economy. The Stellar Ruby was still flying an Iranian flag at the time of the seizure. India’s unprecedented enforcement action took place the same day that Washington and New Delhi unveiled a major bilateral trade framework.
India Remains a Base for Shadow Fleet Firms
The Indian seizure operation was mounted as the U.S. — which unveiled a major bilateral trade framework with India on the same day — moved to cut tariffs on Indian goods from 50 to 18 percent. For its part, India committed to purchasing $500 billion in American goods over five years and pledged to halt Russian oil imports, prompting Trump to lift a separate tariff linked specifically to India’s significant purchases of Russian crude.
Despite this progress, India remains home to a growing number of firms whose business involves supporting shadow fleet vessels. The U.S. State Department sanctioned several entities tied to Iran’s illicit oil economy on the same day as India’s seizure action, including Elevate Marine Management Private Limited. According to the U.S. State Department, Elevate “is the India-based commercial manager of Benedict … a Cameroon-flagged crude oil tanker, which transported Iranian petroleum products on at least three occasions between September and November 2025.” State’s punitive measures were also applied to Elevate’s Indian director, Akash Anat Shinde.
Systematic Enforcement Is Necessary
New Delhi’s operation is part of a wider uptick in maritime action against the shadow fleet, though the pace and significance of enforcement vary sharply. Days earlier, Malaysian authorities detained two sanctioned vessels conducting an unlicensed transfer, but ultimately released both tankers, allowing them to depart with their $130 million cargo intact.
Enforcement elsewhere has been more consequential. Estonia seized a flagless tanker bound for Russia in April 2025. In January, the French navy boarded and detained a Russia-linked tanker fraudulently flying a Comoros flag in the western Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Sweden and Germany have imposed new inspection regimes on Baltic-transiting tankers, and 14 European nations signed an agreement in early February to actively impede vessels, such as aging or flagless shadow fleet ships, which fail to abide by International Maritime Organization regulations. For its part, the United States has seized at least eight tankers tied to sanctioned oil as part of its naval quarantine on Venezuela — with the most recent seizure occurring on February 9 in the Indian Ocean.
Time To Form a Coalition of the Willing
The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a voluntary framework launched in 2003 through which 116 nations cooperate to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction, could fill the gap between ad hoc seizures and enduring multilateral enforcement. PSI participants conduct joint exercises, share intelligence, and coordinate operations at sea and in ports. Already on March 2025, the National Security Council was reportedly exploring the use of PSI to inspect Iranian tankers at key chokepoints.
To assist New Delhi in more systematic enforcement, the U.S. should push for India to join PSI and, simultaneously, work to expand the mechanism’s function to include robust and sustained sanctions enforcement at sea.