French officials have taken the Indian captain of the suspected Russian shadow tanker 'Grinch' into custody. The tanker was seized after being intercepted by the French navy in the Mediterranean Sea. President Emmanuel Macron said the ship was "subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag." The 'Grinch' was traveling from Russia's Arctic port of Murmansk. It is now moored under guard near Marseille in southern France. The Marseille prosecutor's office confirmed that the rest of the crew, also Indian, remain on board. The captain, aged 58, was taken into custody as part of an investigation to "verify the validity of the flag used by the tanker," reportedly registered under the Comoros Islands flag. Authorities have established nautical and air exclusion zones around the ship’s anchorage. Macron stated, "We are determined to uphold international law and to ensure the effective enforcement of sanctions." Many Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russian energy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Moscow has not yet commented on the seizure. Shadow fleets are increasingly used by countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela to bypass sanctions. According to S&P Global, one in five oil tankers worldwide is involved in smuggling oil from sanctioned nations. This is not the first such case, as France seized another sanctioned tanker, the 'Boracay,' last October before releasing it. Earlier in January, British and US forces seized a Russian-flagged tanker suspected of sanction violations in the Atlantic.