Swedish authorities have formally confiscated the bulk carrier Caffa following a request for legal assistance from a foreign state, deepening an international investigation into a vessel suspected of carrying stolen Ukrainian grain and operating under a false flag.

The Caffa, a 96m long bulk carrier, was detained by armed Swedish Coast Guard officers near the port of Trelleborg on March 6 as it headed toward Saint Petersburg, flying what authorities said was a false Guinean flag. The vessel appears on Ukraine’s sanctions list, and Swedish coastguard officials said at the time of detention that they had information indicating it had been used to transport grain stolen from Ukrainian territory.

Prosecutor Hakan Larsson confirmed the confiscation this week, saying a foreign authority had requested that Sweden carry out specific investigative measures relating to the vessel. “I have decided to confiscate the vessel in order for the court to examine whether it can be handed over to the other state,” Larsson said, without disclosing which country had made the request.

One of the 11 crew members – ten of whom are Russian nationals according to Russia’s embassy in Stockholm – has been charged with violations of national and international law, including suspected use of a forged document and breaches of the maritime code and ship safety regulations.

The Caffa will remain confiscated until the investigation concludes and final rulings are issued, after which Swedish courts will determine whether the vessel should be transferred to the requesting state.

The case is the latest in a series of shadow fleet interceptions by European authorities. In March, Swedish officials also boarded the tanker Sea Owl I near Trelleborg. In late January, the French navy intercepted a sanctioned vessel believed to be a Russian oil tanker flying a false flag in the Mediterranean. And in Finland, three crew members from the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S face accusations of deliberately dragging the vessel’s anchor across the seabed in the Gulf of Finland in December 2024, damaging five undersea cables.