TEHRAN- Head of the Justice Department of the southern province of Hormozgan said on Saturday that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy had seized a tanker that was carrying thousands of gallons of illicit fuel in the Persian Gulf and detained the entire crew.

Mojtaba Ghahramani said the fourth naval zone of the IRGC sent troops to the Persian Gulf to take the ship as part of operations to find and combat organized smuggling.

The ship was carrying more than 50 thousand liters of smuggled fuel.

Without mentioning the name of the country that owns the ship, Ghahramani said four persons had been detained in connection to the smuggling.

He emphasized that the cargo on the ship was confiscated on court order and given to the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) and that all individuals engaged in the theft will face prosecution.

Back on July 7, IRGC seized a vessel that carrying hundreds of liters of smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf waters.

Also on August 12, the Iranian authorities seized a vessel carrying 277,000 liters of smuggled fuel in the waters around Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf.

The smugglers intended to transfer the consignment to one of the Persian Gulf littoral states.

Twelve crew members of the vessel have been detained for further investigation. The smuggled fuel is worth 61 billion rials (about $200,000), the report added.

Jalal Amini, head of the anti-trafficking police, said in July that smuggled goods worth 2 trillion rials (nearly $7.1 million) have been confiscated across the country through the third stage of the plan to combat the smuggling of goods and currency.

The smuggled items include basic goods, home appliances, electronic and medical equipment, cars, cosmetics, clothes, and currencies.

Every year, $20-25 billion worth of goods are smuggled in and out of the country, which, if stopped, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, MP Hassan Norouzi has said