It is said that this matter has to start at the end of September. At that time, an oil tanker called Boracay was departing from Primorsk Port in Russia. Its stomach was filled with Urals crude oil, about 100,000 tons, and its destination was Vadinar Port in India. This ship, flying the flag of Benin, looks ordinary, but in fact it belongs to Russia's infamous "shadow fleet", which is the guy who specializes in bypassing EU and British sanctions and smuggling oil. The EU has long been eyeing it, because this fleet helps Russia get 40% of its war funds every year, with a scale of 400 to 600 ships. Boracay has changed its name four times in a year, first Varuna, then Kiwala, Pushpa, and now it is called Boracay. It has also turned off the transponder, and the shipowner hides in a tax haven, typical cat and mouse game.

The ship left Primorsk on September 20, heading south along the Baltic Sea, intending to cross the Danish Strait into the Atlantic Ocean. Just two days after leaving, on September 22nd, it wandered in the sea about 90 kilometers south of Copenhagen. On that day, an unknown drone suddenly appeared over Denmark, causing the local airport to close directly and all flights to stop. The French later checked the ship tracking data and found that this time point matched the location of Boracay. They suspected that the ship might be a platform for drone launch, or at least a bait. Two days later, on September 24th, the oil tanker continued to go south. When it approached the border waters between Germany and Denmark, another drone appeared over the nearby airport and land, with an altitude of about 500 meters, and its trajectory was almost parallel to the ship's route. These drone incidents caused chickens and dogs to jump in several European countries, and the French Navy felt that it could not sit idly by, especially when this ship was also suspected of transporting banned oil.

The French acted quickly and blocked Boracay off their own coast on September 27th. Two warships rushed directly up, helicopters circled above them, and soldiers boarded the ship to search. From the bridge building to the oil tank, everything turned upside down. They checked documents, scanned equipment, and cut communication lines to confirm that the ship was on the EU sanctions blacklist. The captain and the first mate were on board at that time. Both of them were Chinese. The captain was in charge of the whole voyage and the first mate was in charge of daily operations. The French army asked them to show their registration certificates and voyage details, but the captain insisted that he would not cooperate and say nothing. Now the French prosecutor was angry, thinking that the ship was either hiding something fishy or deliberately disobeying orders. Anyway, legal ships wouldn't carry it so hard.

The arrest came suddenly, on October 1, the French authorities officially imprisoned Boracay near the port of Saint-Nazaire, the captain was arrested directly, and the captain followed the detention. The captain was accused of violating the rules of the sea, could not prove the legitimacy of the Benin flag, and did not listen to the navy's instructions, the maximum could be sentenced to one year in prison, a fine of 150,000 euros. The captain was later released after questioning, no big problem. The French focused on oil transportation here, confirming that the oil on the ship was Rosneft, the loading records clearly, from Primorsk pump entered. The drone that although the route was overlap, but temporarily stopped, the main evidence chain was not hard enough, the investigation was focused on san

This is not France going it alone. The European Union and Britain have jointly stalked the shadow fleet for a long time. Boracay has been temporarily suspended in Estonia before, and there are all port records. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal posted on X, praising the navy for doing a good job, saying that this is the beginning of a new European strategy to block the Russian oil money bag. President Macron also expressed his position at the EU Summit in Copenhagen, emphasizing that the arrest of the ship was a collective effort, aiming at the source of war funds. Naturally, Russia refused to do it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shouted that it was piracy and sent a note to protest, but the French didn't care at all and continued to push forward the investigation.

The ship was detained for six days and was released on October 3 and continued towards the Suez Canal. The anchor chain was pulled up, the engine roared, and Boracay slipped away, leaving behind a pile of files. French prosecutors are preparing the case in Brest, and the trial is scheduled to start on February 23, 2026. The captain will have to appear in court remotely or something, or face charges anyway. The whole process exposed the tricks of the shadow fleet: changing names and flags, turning off signals, and detours. These tricks are ironclad evidence in the eyes of the EU, and the tracking data is all displayed on MarineTraffic.