Swedish special forces and coast guard conducted a large-scale operation called ‘Svart kaffe’ to seize the vessel Caffa in the Baltic Sea.
This was reported by the publication Göteborgs-Posten.
On Friday, near the city of Trelleborg, soldiers from Nationella insatsstyrkan, supported by police aviation and Swedish coast guard personnel, boarded a dry cargo ship flying a false flag.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, in July 2025, this ship loaded stolen grain in occupied Sevastopol. Due to its involvement in illegal schemes to export products from the occupied territories, Ukraine added Caffa to its sanctions list.
Swedish Minister of Civil Defence Carl Oscar Bolin confirmed that in the summer, the ship changed its Russian flag to a Guinean one to conceal its activities. At the time of the interception, the dry cargo ship was sailing from Casablanca to St. Petersburg.
Data from the Marinetraffic service and information from Swedish authorities indicate systematic violations of international norms by this vessel.
Coast Guard representative Mattias Lindholm noted that law enforcement agencies carefully planned the operation and assessed the risks in advance.
The Swedish authorities have now launched an investigation into violations of maritime law, in particular due to the vessel’s inadequate seaworthiness.
Investigators are conducting searches on board and questioning the crew. Official Stockholm views this incident as part of the fight against the ‘shadow fleet’ that helps Russia circumvent restrictions and legalize stolen resources.
On March 1, 2026, the Belgian military, with the support of the French Armed Forces, seized an oil tanker belonging to the Russian ‘shadow fleet,’ which is owned by the son of the senior advisor to the recently eliminated supreme leader of Iran.
The ship was intercepted off the Belgian coast near Ostend around midnight with the help of a helicopter assault and sent to the port of Zeebrugge for arrest.
The military detained the 180-meter-long oil tanker Ethera, built in 2008, which was flying the flag of Guinea.
According to Minister of Justice and the North Sea Annelies Verlinden, the tanker was intercepted on the basis of intelligence data. This data identified it as a ship flying a false flag and belonging to the ‘shadow fleet.’
