Estonia stops Russia-bound ship on smuggling suspicionsStaff WritersReutersWed, 4 February 2026 5:12PM
Estonia’s Tax and Customs Board has 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 ship’s crew consists of 23 citizens of Russia, and they did not offer any resistance, the authority said.
The Bahamas-flagged refrigerated container vessel was anchored near Tallinn on Wednesday, having travelled there from a port in Colombia, according to ship tracking service MarineTraffic.
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