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Suspicious ship dropped anchor near critical subsea cables off Ireland enroute to Russia
The 'Arne', bound for the Russian port Murmansk, had dropped its anchor near critical subsea cables off Ireland’s west coast on March 20, when Air Corps personnel observed the vessel, towing its anchor while underway off County Mayo. The ship regularly transports alumina from Aughinish Alumina in County Limerick to Russia. It had collected a shipment before the incident. The anchor drop occurred close to the AEC-1 data cable, which connects Ireland and the United States. The vessel had previously lost its anchor off Germany, where cables were also damaged. The German police had later boarded the ship and found the anchor was missing. Much of the anchor cable was also gone. The export of alumina to Russia is not illegal, and the vessels involved are not sanctioned. However, some shipments have attracted attention from European security agencies. The ship had docked at Aughinish on Dec 25 and left the port enroute to St. Petersburg on Jan 1. The vessel later returned to European waters and was intercepted by German authorities near the Kiel Canal. It was escorted to Kiel for inspections.
Suspicious ship detected near cables again
The 'Arne', which had raised the suspicions of German authorities in February, has now been tracked twice by Ireland’s Defense Forces. The Irish Naval Service and Air Corps were put on alert as the ship was thought to possibly be acting suspiciously near undersea cables on March 20. The ship docked in the port of Aughinish on the southwest coast near Limerick en route from Sagunto, where it had sailed on March 15. The Air Corps tracked the vessel in part due to a previous incident off the northeast coast of Ireland. It was identified as suspicious after the German authorities reported stopping it on Feb 24 in Kiel, missing its port side anchor. After an investigation, the German authorities had permitted the vessel to continue its voyage. The Irish authorities then detected the same ship off the northeast coast and the Air Corps was sent to investigate. A surveillance airplane filmed the vessel dropping its anchor. The Irish Defense Force contacted the ship ordering it to stop its anchoring and back away from the sensitive area with the cables. On March 25 the ship left Foynes en route to the Russian port of St. Petersburg with an ETA as of March 31.
Search for missing anchor going on
The "Arne", which was escorted into the Kiel Fjord accompanied by the patrol ship "Neustadt" and the Danish patrol boat "Luna" on Feb 22 due to the suspicion of sabotage and missing the port side anchor, is actually crossing the Bay of Biscay with an ETA in Sevilla as of March 2. it remained unclear to date, whether the "Arne" had damaged an underground data cable not far from the Swedish island of Gotland, which was the reason why the federal police went on board for three hours and questioned the crew about the missing anchor. The investigation is an ongoing procedure. For operational reasons, no information was provided at this time. The search for the missing anchor was continuing in parallel with the investigation. If it is found near the damaged cable, this would be a crucial clue.
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