U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration said has ties to Venezuela, marking the latest step in an effort officials described as taking control of Venezuela’s oil. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the tanker, named Veronica, was boarded early Thursday, after it had passed through Venezuelan waters while operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said on social media, according to the Associated Press.
The operation involved both Coast Guard personnel and the military. U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, and Noem said the Coast Guard conducted the boarding. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show parts of the seizure. The footage posted in black-and-white appeared to show at least four helicopters approaching the tanker before hovering over the deck as armed troops dropped down by rope, and at least nine people appeared on the deck.
The Veronica was the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces, AP reported. The AP also said it was the fourth tanker seized since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks earlier.
According to the data on the tanker’s transmissions, the Veronica last sent its location on Jan. 3 while at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. AP reported that, based on that data, the ship was partially filled with crude.
Days later, Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told AP that the Veronica left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the U.S. quarantine. Madani said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document ship movements, and he pointed to the broader pattern of tankers leaving Venezuela during that period. AP reported that the ship was listed as flying the flag of Guyana and was considered part of a “shadow fleet” that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Registration data cited by AP said the tanker was also known as the Gallileo and was owned and managed by a company in Russia. AP reported that registration information also linked the same registration number to an earlier name, Pegas, which the Treasury Department sanctioned for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.
As with prior public posts about such raids, Noem and the military described the seizure as enforcement. AP reported that Noem argued that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice” in response to the series of tanker captures.
Later Thursday, Noem told reporters at the White House that she could not speak to the specifics of the operation, but said the administration was watching the entire shadow fleet and tracking how it was moving. AP reported that other officials in Trump’s Republican administration said the actions were intended to generate cash as the administration sought to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
AP reported that Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. The administration said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
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