CAPSTONE |
SANCTIONED VESSEL TRACKING | |||||||
MARINETRAFFIC · EQUASIS · LLOYD'S LIST INTELLIGENCE · OFAC SDN · ICIJ OFFSHORE LEAKS | ||||||||
ADVANCED | ||||||||
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| 01 | A sanctioned vessel does not disappear: it hides in plain sightSanctions designations place a vessel on a prohibited list. They do not stop it from moving. Sanctioned ships continue to operate by exploiting gaps in AIS coverage, falsifying identity data, reflagging under new registries and transferring ownership through opaque corporate chains. Tracking one from port to port requires every discipline covered in this series applied in sequence. |
This capstone integrates AIS analysis, ship identity verification, beneficial ownership tracing, flag state research, port state control records and sanctions database cross-referencing into a single end-to-end workflow. The subject is a vessel that has been designated under a sanctions regime and is continuing to operate. The objective is to document its movements, ownership chain and evasion methods to evidentiary standard.
Each section applies a method sequence from earlier tutorials in the series. Where a technique is covered in depth elsewhere, this capstone focuses on how it fits the combined workflow, so you can run the whole chain end to end on a case of your own.
In the field Bloomberg reporters watched two ageing tankers, the Turba and the Simba, transfer fuel ship to ship in the Laconian Gulf off Greece on 19 September 2023, then showed how tracking data hid it (published 27 September 2023).
Bloomberg · Laconian Gulf ship-to-ship transfer · September 2023 |
Learning outcomes
By the end of this tutorial you will be able to:
Retrieve and interpret AIS movement history for a designated vessel, identifying gaps and anomalies consistent with evasion
Verify vessel identity across MMSI, IMO number and flag state records to detect spoofing or reflagging
Trace the ownership and management chain of a sanctioned vessel to the beneficial owner
Cross-reference vessel movements against port state control records and sanctions databases
Assemble a complete port-to-port movement and ownership dossier to evidentiary standard
The rest of this tutorial is for Signal subscribers.
What remains: the decision framework, the tool configuration, the failure modes, and the evidentiary standard required to use the finding defensibly.
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