MIAMI (AP) — The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica when the safety signals it’s required to transmit showed it stopping in its tracks and turning 180 degrees in just two minutes. It was an impossibly quick pivot for a ship that size. Even more intriguing: Around the same time the Berlina was pinging that location at sea, it was spotted loading crude oil in Venezuela, despite U.S. sanctions against such trading. Maritime experts say the Berlina’s impossible journey could represent the next frontier in the evolving methods rogue states use to hide ship movements while circumventing sanctions.
