THE Panama Maritime Authority’s (AMP) crackdown on vessels involved in illicit activities has contributed to a flurry of flag hopping, with sanctioned ships seeking refuge in fraudulent registries and those registries with a history of accepting sanctioned tonnage.

In October 2024, the AMP announced it would automatically cancel the registration of “any vessel found to be involved in illegal activities or that changes its flag to evade sanction”, which was followed by a new legal framework that would allow the registry to quickly deregister ships.

The AMPs enhancement of compliance efforts was in response to the inclusion of Panama-flagged vessels on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control list.

There have been 135 vessels added to international sanctions lists since the Panama flag announced its purge of ships engaged in illicit activities, and according to a Lloyd’s List investigation 73 of these vessels have since reflagged.

Guyana’s fraudulent flag registry was the first port of call for many of these newly designated ships.

An analysis of Automatic Identification System data shows 18 sanctioned vessels previously flagged with Panama transmitting Maritime Mobile Service Identity numbers related to the Guyana registry.

A MMSI number is a unique nine-digit number assigned to a vessel by a flag registry for identifying and communicating via radio and AIS.

The International Maritime Organization’s Global Integrated Shipping Information System database shows 14 of these ships are falsely flying the Guyana flag. The remaining four show up in GISIS as “unknown” flag.

Several vessels turned to the fake flags of Curacao and Sint Maarten, as well as Djibouti and Guinea.

There are four sanctioned ships that IMO’s GISIS indicate are falsely flagged with Panama. These are crude oil tankers Olive (IMO: 9288265), Rex 1 (IMO: 9219056) and product tankers Black Panther (IMO: 9285756) and Tonil (IMO: 9307932).

AIS data shows Olive and Black Panther have since reflagged with their MMSIs showing affiliation with either Curacao or Sint Maarten, and Gambia respectively.

There are another 37 vessels that are actively transmitting MMSIs linked to the Panama flag registry, but IMO’s GISIS indicates these vessels are no longer flagged with Panama and instead have unknown flags.

In a statement dated March 29, 2025 the AMP said it had deregistered 107 Panama-flagged ships listed under international sanctions and is investigating another 18 vessels.

False flags and flag hopping are both deceptive shipping practices and ones that are increasingly coming under scrutiny, especially by the US administration, for the role they play in facilitating sanctioned trades.

The IMO’s GISIS database indicates 26 of the sanctioned vessels that reflagged from Panama are flying fake flags.

Overall, and after eight ships reflagged twice, Comoros has taken in the most sanctioned formerly Panama-flagged vessels, followed by Guyana, Gambia and Barbados.

This data is based on what the vessel is transmitting via AIS and it does not distinguish between false flags and legitimate flags.

Other registries, beyond those mentioned in this article, are affected by false flagging.