Estonian police commando board an Estonian navy vessel, during Estonian operation aimed at detaining a ship heading for Russia suspected of smuggling, at an unknown location on the Estonian Baltic Coast, Estonia, February 3, 2026. Estonian Police and Border Guard Board/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. LICENSE PLATE OF THE VEHICLE OBSCURED AT SOURCE.
COPENHAGEN, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Estonia’s Tax and Customs Board said late on Tuesday it had detained a container ship sailing under the Bahamian flag in Estonia’s internal waters that may be linked to smuggling from Ecuador.
“There is reason to believe that the vessel may have been used for smuggling,” the authority said in a statement.
“The police special unit K-Commando boarded the ship, after which the vessel was detained under national supervision for the purpose of carrying out a customs inspection.”
The ship, named Baltic Spirit, was en route from Ecuador to St. Petersburg in Russia and is not part of the Russian shadow fleet nor is it subject to European Union sanctions, they added.
The Bahamas-flagged refrigerated container vessel was anchored near Tallinn on Wednesday, having traveled there from a port in Colombia, according to ship tracking service MarineTraffic.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Terje Solsvik and Louise Rasmussen)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.
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