The U.S. Coast Guard interdicted an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters of the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, according to U.S. officials.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the operation in a post on social media, saying the Coast Guard “apprehended” the tanker with support from the Department of Defense in a pre-dawn action. She said the tanker had last made port in Venezuela.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem said in the post. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
In a post on social media, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth referenced President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela, which has ratcheted up American pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
“President Trump has been clear: the blockade of sanctioned oil tankers departing from, or bound for, Venezuela will remain in full force until Maduro’s criminal enterprise returns every stolen American asset,” Hegseth said in the post.
This is the second oil tanker seized by the United States in the Caribbean. However, unlike the seizure earlier this month, the tanker involved in Saturday’s operation was not on any sanctions list maintained by the U.S., the European Union, the U.K. or the UN, according to Kpler, a data firm that tracks transportation and logistics networks.
In the earlier Dec. 10 operation, an elite U.S. Coast Guard tactical operations team, with the support of U.S. Navy helicopters, boarded and seized The Skipper, an oil tanker sanctioned for being part of an illicit oil operation involving Venezuela.
Reuters was first to report that a second vessel was being seized by the Coast Guard.
Trump announced what he called the blockade of sanctioned oil tankers heading to and from Venezuela in a lengthy post on his social media platform on Dec. 16.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”
In response to Trump’s announcement, Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change. “This will just not happen, never, never, never — Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, never,” he said.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story stated the U.S. operation on Saturday involved a sanctioned oil tanker. In fact, the vessel does not appear on any sanctions list.
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