US Seizes 7th Oil Tanker Linked to Venezuela

US military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to take control of the South American country's oil, the AP reports. US Southern Command said in a social media post that US forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta "without incident" and that the tanker was operating in defiance of President Trump's "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean." The military command did not say whether the US Coast Guard took control of the tanker as has been the case in prior seizures. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for more details. Southern Command said it had nothing to add to its post.

The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker and its registration says it is owned and managed by a company in Hong Kong. The ship last transmitted its location more than two months ago when exiting the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. The tanker was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department under an executive order related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The post from US Southern Command indicated the ship had taken oil from Venezuela. It said the capture of the tanker "demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully."

The military command posted what appeared to be aerial footage of the Sagitta sailing on the ocean, but unlike in prior videos the clip did not show US forces flying toward it in helicopters or landing on the deck of the ship. Since the US ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has set out to control the production, refining, and global distribution of Venezuela's oil products. Officials in Trump's Republican administration have made it clear they see seizing the tankers as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela's battered oil industry and restore its economy.