JAKARTA 25 January, 2021, (TON): Indonesian coast guard seized the Iranian-flagged MT Horse and the Panamanian-flagged MT Freya vessels over suspected illegal oil transfer in the country’s waters on Sunday.

Wisnu Pramandita, coast guard spokeman said, for further investigation the tankers seized in the waters of Kalimantan province have been sent to Batam Island in Riau Island Province.

“The tankers, first detected at 5:30 a.m. local time (2130 GMT on January 23, 2021) concealed their identity by not showing their national flags, turning off automatic identification systems and did not respond to a radio call,” Wisnu said in a statement on Sunday.

The ships were “caught red-handed” transferring oil from MT Horse to MT Freya when they were discovered by the authorities and there was an oil spill around the receiving tanker said Wisnu on Monday.

So far 61 crew members from both vessels have been arrested.

The supertankers are capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil.

National Iranian Tanker Company owned MT Horse, Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was almost fully loadedre Ship Management Co.’s VLCC MT Freya, was empty.

NITC was not immediately available for comment.

Iran, which has not commented on the seizure, has been accused of concealing the destination of its oil sales by disabling tracking systems on its tankers, making it difficult to assess how much crude Tehran exports as it seeks to counter U.S. sanctions.