A USCGC Munro crew member observes the oil tanker Bella 1 in the north Atlantic Ocean on Jan. 6, 2026. Munro’s crew monitored the vessel, later renamed Marinera, until it was seized by U.S. forces following a protracted pursuit. (U.S. Coast Guard)
A Coast Guard cutter that made headlines by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to chase down an oil tanker wanted for violating U.S. sanctions is back stateside, according to the service.
USCG cutter Munro returned to its homeport in Alameda, Calif., on March 1, capping a nearly four-month deployment that saw the vessel and its crew travel some 26,000 miles, a Coast Guard statement Thursday said.
“This was a one-of-a-kind deployment for us,” Capt. Jim O’Mara, commanding officer of Munro, said in the statement, adding that the crew had “achieved historic results.”
The deployment took Munro from military exercises off the coast of San Diego to the eastern Pacific Ocean and into the north Atlantic, the statement said.
Munro was on duty in support of Operation Southern Spear, a drug interdiction mission, when it attempted to stop a tanker originally called Bella I in the Caribbean Sea on Dec. 21 as it was heading to Venezuela to load with oil.
But the ship, which was later renamed Marinera and registered in Russia, refused the intended boarding and sailed into the Atlantic.
USCGC Munro pulls into its home port of Alameda, Calif., after a 119-day patrol, March 1, 2026. Munro traveled around 26,000 miles during its deployment and seized over 10 tons of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean. (Austin Wiley/U.S. Coast Guard)
Munro doggedly pursued the tanker for more than two weeks, ultimately helping U.S. forces seize it in the north Atlantic in early January.
Considered part of a fleet of vessels used to transport illicit oil around the world, the ship was sanctioned in 2024 by the U.S. amid claims that it was smuggling cargo for a company linked to a Lebanon-based proxy group funded by Iran.
The ship’s captain, Avtandil Kalandadze, and first officer were arrested and taken aboard Munro.
Kalandadze faces federal charges of violating two sections of U.S. federal law, taking an action to prevent seizure and failure to heave to, according to a federal indictment filed on Feb. 12.
Those charges are based on accusations that then-Bella 1 was fraudulently flying the flag of Guyana and that Kalandadze disobeyed Coast Guard instructions to stop and allow U.S. forces to board.
Earlier in its deployment, Munro found and tracked a vessel transiting along a known smuggling route in the eastern Pacific.
With the help of its two cutter pursuit boats, Munro interdicted the vessel. Six people aboard were detained, and the confiscation of 22,052 pounds of cocaine was the single largest maritime drug seizure in 18 years, the Coast Guard said.
The interdiction continued Coast Guard counter-drug operations through Operation Pacific Viper, including the seizure of over 200,000 pounds of cocaine along maritime smuggling routes from South and Central America since last August, according to the statement.
