US forces board Venezuela-linked sanctioned oil tanker
American forces have pulled out a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Venezuela in the North Atlantic after tracking it for weeks, a U.S. official said.
The seizure of the tanker came just days after US military forces launched a surprise nighttime raid on the Venezuelan capital Caracas and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Following this crackdown, Trump administration officials said they planned to continue seizing sanctioned ships bound for the country.
An official spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The US military seized the ship and turned control over to law enforcement, the official said.
The United States had been following the tanker since last month as it tried to bypass the American blockade of sanctioned oil ships around Venezuela.
U.S. European Command confirmed in a post on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro followed the ship before it was seized “pursuant to an order issued by a U.S. federal court.”
The military command said the seizure supports President Donald Trump’s announcement to target sanctioned ships that “threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere.”
The ship was sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The U.S. Coast Guard attempted to board the ship in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela.
The ship refused to board and sailed out into the Atlantic.
The ship, once known as Bella 1, has been renamed Marinera and flagged for Russia, according to maritime databases.
Earlier on Wednesday, open-source marine monitoring sites showed its position between Scotland and Iceland heading north.
The US official also confirmed that the ship was in the North Atlantic.
US military planes flew over the ship, and on Tuesday a British Royal Air Force surveillance plane was spotted on flight tracking sites over the same area.
