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Reports in the UK's Sunday Times are linking the seizure of an OFAC-sanctioned VLCC tanker, the Majestic X (IMO 9198317), to the Kinahan drugs cartel and Iranian oil trading.
The tanker was seized east of Sri Lanka in a combined operation coordinated by US Indo-Pacific Command on April 23, with the seizure crew launching from the Lewis B. Puller Class expeditionary staging base USS Miguel Keith(ESB 5). The Majestic X was fully laden, with the Sunday Times estimating that there were two million barrels of oil on board, worth $192m at market prices.
It is not clear where the Majestic X loaded, either at Kharg Island or by ship-to-ship transfer off Khor Fakkan, but the tanker was well clear of the Gulf of Oman by April 13, the date on which the US naval blockade of Iranian ships and ports was announced. The Majestic X has been plying her trade between the Gulf and northern Chinese ports since 2023, and may have paused and held off Sri Lanka on this passage for fear of being seized as part of the tighter controls now being imposed on sanctioned vessels by the US Treasury.
The 2001-built ship, originally named Luna Lake, was purchased for $43 million by Marshall Islands-registered Faith Enterprise Ltd in 2023. The ship was then renamed the Majestic X in documentation notarized by the Panamanian Consulate in Dubai, signed by Faith Enterprise Ltd director Mounir Lazzez.
Mounir Lazzez is a Tunisian cage fighter, formerly resident in Dubai, who appears to have been a trusted associate of US-sanctioned Daniel Kinahan, boxing promoter and scion of the Kinahan international drugs cartel. Daniel Kinahan was arrested on an extradition warrant by the Dubai Police in April, having lived openly in Dubai for a number of years. Mounir Lazzez, as director of Dragon Road Ltd, registered in the Marshall Islands alongside Faith Enterprise Ltd, was also associated with the purchase for $41.74m of a sister ship, the 2000-built VLCC then named Alisha(IMO 9197832). The Alisha, by now named the Serene 1, was sanctioned by OFAC in September 2024 for trading Iranian oil on behalf of the IRGC and Hezbollah-linked entities in Lebanon.
The links between the Kinahans, Mounir Lazzez, the IRGC, Hezbollah and Iranian oil exports have a speculative element, sufficient to support sanctions action by OFAC – but not, until the arrest by the Dubai Police of Daniel Kinahan on April 15, sufficient to disturb the rest of the Kinahan clan, including its head Christy Kinahan, who continues to live openly in Dubai. Christy Kinahan is a convicted heroin smuggler and was designated by the US Treasury for his organized crime links in April 2022.
The missing evidential element of the case against the Kinahan cartel for involvement with the IRGC, Hezbollah and Iranian oil sanctions-breaking may well be produced in court, whether in Dubai or in the District of Columbia, where federal prosecutors obtained a seizure order over the Majestic X's cargo. However, the enormous criminal gains of the Kinahanss may have something to do with the undisturbed life they continue to enjoy in Dubai, despite the incongruity of the Kinahans having to dodge drones fired at Dubai by the IRGC, which they in turn may have helped finance.
It is telling that the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on April 28 described the seizure of the Majestic X as "legitimizing piracy and armed robbery at sea," suggestive of Iran's beneficial ownership of the vessel and its oil, notwithstanding the lack of Iranian fingerprints or connections on the official registration documentation for the vessel.
The seizure of the Majestic X preceded the June 5 interception by USINDOPACOM of the fully-laden, false-flagged VLCC Davina(IMO 9746499), also off the coast of Sri Lanka, which had slipped through the Strait of Hormuz before the US blockade was imposed. USINDOPACOM also seized the Botswana-flagged Tifany(IMO 9273337) on April 21, making a total of four sanctioned ships in the Indian Ocean area in the last month, but it has not yet set to work on ships holding Iranian cargoes off Eastern Malaysia - which are effectively a floating storage reserve for the Chinese energy sector, Iran's monopsony customer.
Fuente: Maritime Executive
