Five years ago, the United States sanctioned a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker for involvement in transferring LPG to the port of Baniyas in northwestern Syria. The American action was designed to weaken a network supplying Damascus with energy products but the same vessel continues to visit Syria, with satellite imagery showing that the tanker was at Baniyas as recently as December 2020.
Some of the networks Washington sanctioned in 2015 have developed convoluted tactics to obfuscate their maritime activities and conceal their true ownerships, demonstrating their determination to evade sanctions in murky corners of the shipping industry where lawlessness pervades. The LPG tanker