A weeks-long U.S. Coast Guard pursuit of a tanker linked to the transport of Iranian oil ended on June 12 with a guilty plea from Avtandil Kalandadze, 47, the former master of the so-called “ghost fleet” vessel Bella 1.
Kalandadze, a citizen of Georgia, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington to failing to obey an order to “heave to” a Coast Guard cutter after leading authorities on a chase from the Caribbean Sea into the North Atlantic Ocean. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 7. He faces up to five years in prison and is expected to be deported after serving any sentence.
Kalandadze’s plea “should serve as a warning to ghost fleet owners and operators and all those who man or otherwise support these dangerous, decrepit vessels,” John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general, stated. “The Department of Justice and our interagency partners will pursue the ghost fleet and its facilitators from the Caribbean Sea to the North Atlantic, to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Persian Gulf, and anywhere in between. You will not escape.”
According to court documents, Kalandadze served as master of the Bella 1 from September through December 2025. During that period, the tanker transported roughly 1.8 million barrels of oil of Iranian origin to Asia while employing sanctions-evasion tactics commonly associated with ghost-fleet vessels. Those measures included disabling the ship’s Automatic Identification System and concealing the vessel’s identity during a ship-to-ship transfer of Iranian oil.
Federal prosecutors said the Bella 1 was bound for Venezuela in December 2025 when the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro intercepted it. Rather than comply with orders to stop, the tanker fled across the Atlantic. The vessel was ultimately seized on Jan. 7, 2026, following a multiweek pursuit.
Authorities also allege that Kalandadze destroyed records and other information aboard the vessel while attempting to evade capture.
“Kalandadze led the U.S. Coast Guard on a reckless weeks-long chase across the Atlantic, endangering service members’ lives all to turn a profit on sanctioned oil for the benefit of U.S. adversaries,” stated John Condon, acting deputy executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations. “Despite early attempts to evade detection, Homeland Security Investigations and our task force partners used our expertise in countering illicit finance and dark fleet movements to identify, locate and seize these sanctioned tankers.”
