Finnish police have boarded a tanker suspected of sabotaging power and communication cables connecting Finland and Estonia.
The Cook Islands-flagged 74,035-dwt Eagle S (built 2006) is currently at anchor in Finnish territorial waters, according to vessel tracking sites.
Data suggested it left the Russian port of Ust-Luga and was bound for Egypt.
The vessel is listed as owned by Peninsular Maritime of India and operated by Caravella LLC-FZ, based in the UAE.
According to VesselsValue, Caravella operates just one vessel.
In this new suspected sabotage case, Finnish prime minister Petteri Orpo told broadcaster YLE that the country acted quickly once the power cables were broken.
"This is a big political security question, but also a question of environmental safety," he said.
“The shadow fleet which sails out there constitutes an enormous threat to our environment and the sensitive Baltic Sea.”
He insisted that Finland had the situation under control and was working with Estonia, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Denmark, and the European Commission.
He also said the country has been in contact with NATO, which the country has only just joined.
The break in the power cable connecting Finland with Estonia was localised as being inside Finnish territorial waters and happened in the afternoon of the 25 December, according to Findgrid, the country’s power grid operator talking to YLE in Finland.
Meanwhile, in Estonia, national telecoms companies Elisa and CITC Telecom have reported that their cables running under the Gulf of Finland are also no longer working.
In a press conference today (26 September) the head of Finland’s criminal police Robin Lardot said that the police had managed to get Eagle S to stop in Finnish territorial waters, which gave them the power to board the vessel.
"We were able to go onboard with the help of the army, the coastguard and the criminal police of Finland," he said.
"We suspect gross sabotage and we have spoken to the crew and gathered evidence. The investigation will continue for several days."
This is the second suspected sabotage in as many months following the alleged dragging of an anchor by a Chinese vessel in November, which broke cables connecting Sweden and Lithuania and Finland with Germany.
That vessel, the 75,100-dwt Yi Peng 3 (built 2001), left the Baltic Sea a week ago after Swedish police boarded it.
