A Russian captain was sentenced to eight years, nine months jail in Greece this week for smuggling millions of contraband cigarettes while five Ukranian crewmembers were handed six and a half year sentences.
The men were working on the Tanzanian flagged Mesogio when it was detained by the Greek coastguard last February.
Investigators found more than 66m Libyan cigarettes onboard, and reckon the Mesogio was the mother ship in a large Russian smuggling operation with other smaller vessels likely planned to take consignments from it.
Shipping database Equasis notes that the 1968-built Mesogio is owned by a company registered in the Marshall Islands called Dimare Marine.
