{"id":409757,"date":"2026-01-16T00:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409757\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T00:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T00:03:14","slug":"us-seizes-sixth-sanctioned-oil-tanker-it-says-has-ties-to-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/409757\/","title":{"rendered":"US seizes sixth sanctioned oil tanker it says has ties to Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country\u2019s oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cestablished quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford<\/a> to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized \u201cwithout incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship\u2019s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.<\/p>\n

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized<\/a> by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump\u2019s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela\u2019s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela\u2019s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.<\/p>\n

Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com<\/a>. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.<\/p>\n

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil<\/a> in violation of U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.<\/p>\n

As with prior posts about such raids<\/a>, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that \u201cthere is no outrunning or escaping American justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they\u2019re moving,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n

But other officials in Trump\u2019s Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela\u2019s battered oil industry and restore its economy.<\/p>\n

Trump met with executives from oil companies<\/a> last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels<\/a> of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro\u2019s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,28,23662,60187,14271,12,3321,793,3502,4801,3140,3,18231,111,196755,18598,3770,192706,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,18232,800,965],"class_list":["post-409757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-business","tag-caribbean","tag-caribbean-sea","tag-central-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-gerald-ford","tag-kristi-noem","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-politics","tag-samir-madani","tag-south-america","tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}