A team of Royal Marines from HMS Sutherland have seized a ship smuggling oil out of Iraq.

The mv Navstar I had been under observation by Coalition forces in international waters in the Northern Arabian Gulf after she was seen receiving visits from small fuel barges.

The Royal Marines went in late on Friday, and by late that evening had secured the ship, handing it over to a crew from the USS Rodney M Davis, an American Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate.

They ordered the ship’s crew to take her to the port of Umm Qasr, where she docked yesterday morning and her crew were handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

The 1,100 tonnes of oil recovered, worth around £200,000 on the open market, would have been sold on the b lack market and the profits pocketed by smugglers and their contacts. Although Saddam Hussein’s regime has been toppled, Coalition warships are still on the look-out for smugglers as they are now seen as cheating the people of Iraq out of oil revenue.

It is estimated that more than 2,000 tonnes of oil is lost to the country ever day – the equivalent of more than 150 road tankers.

HMS Sutherland is the Royal Navy’s Armilla Patrol frigate, carrying out a range of duties in the Gulf which includes checking shipping for illegal cargoes and making goodwill visits to Gulf ports.