Mike Baker

has been targeting sanctioned evasion routes aggressively, particularly those running through Venezuela.

Over recent months, the U.S.

military has seized seven Venezuela-linked tankers carrying sanctioned crude, part of a sustained campaign to disrupt oil flows tied to Russia and its partners.

As we reported last week, France has also stepped up enforcement.

Just yesterday, French naval commandos intercepted the tanker Grinch in the Alboran Sea, escorting it to the Gulf of Fos.

French authorities detained the ship's Indian captain, while prosecutors in Marseille opened a preliminary investigation.

That seizure followed another French tanker interception just days earlier, marking the second such operation in as many weeks.

These actions signal a clear shift.

Sanctions are no longer just financial instruments or diplomatic warnings.

They are being enforced physically at sea by multiple countries.

Under international maritime law, vessels that fail to properly identify themselves, falsify registration, or operate without valid documentation

can be treated as ships without nationality.

That legal framework is now being used more aggressively, giving coastal states justification to board, detain, and seize vessels tied to sanctions evasion.

For Moscow, this represents a direct threat to one of the few economic lifelines still functioning.

Oil revenue remains critical to sustaining Russia's military operations, funding weapons production, and cushioning the domestic impact of the war.

And for Western governments, this campaign does carry risk.

Intercepting tankers raises the possibility of legal challenges, diplomatic retaliation, or even maritime confrontations.

But officials appear increasingly convinced that passive enforcement is no longer enough.

The message being sent is rather unmistakable.

The era of looking the other way while ghost tankers quietly move sanctioned oil is coming to an end.