US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the US had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount between Washington and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
US forces took control of the merchant ship in the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the US.
The US has launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”
Asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said: “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
The seizure was led by the US Coast Guard and supported by the US Navy, said a US official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
It was conducted under US law enforcement authority, the official added.
Coast guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the official said.
Video posted to social media by US Attorney General Pam Bondi showed people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just above the oil tanker’s deck.
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” Bondi wrote.
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”
The anonymous US official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper.
The ship departed Venezuela early this month with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, documents from state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA showed.
The Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data.
The Adisa was sanctioned by the US in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a network that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran and Hezbollah.
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