Bangladesh, Oct. 17 -- When a red-decked cargo vessel was spotted earlier this year loading grain at a Russian-occupied port in Ukraine, few realized that the ships story stretched far beyond the Black Sea. What seemed like another case of sanctions-busting maritime trade has now unraveled into a complex web of secret deals, offshore companies, and political corruption that ties directly to the crumbling remnants of Bashar al-Assads fallen regime in Syria.

At the center of this intrigue are three Syrian cargo ships – the Finikia, the Laodicea, and the Souria – vessels once proudly owned by the Syrian state but now accused of smuggling Ukrainian grain stolen from territories occupied by Russia. Investigations by the Organized ...