US Seizes Another Venezuela-Linked Tanker
An image from the US Southern Command's video. (US Southern Command)
U.S. military forces have captured another oil tanker tied to Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. Southern Command announced Thursday, marking the sixth such seizure in recent weeks as part of a broader crackdown on ships moving sanctioned crude.
In a pre‑dawn operation, Marines and sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and boarded the tanker Veronica “without incident,” the command said in a post on social media.
U.S. officials say Veronica had been operating in defiance of a quarantine on sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean established by President Donald Trump and aimed at enforcing U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s oil exports. “The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” Southern Command said.
Records show the Guyana‑flagged vessel, also known as the Galileo, left Venezuelan waters earlier this month and has ties to companies previously identified in sanction‑related actions.
The Veronica seizure comes after U.S. forces interdicted several other tankers in and around the Caribbean and North Atlantic in recent weeks, as part of what U.S. officials describe as efforts to disrupt a “shadow fleet” of ships carrying Venezuelan and other sanctioned crude.
These captures have taken place amid heightened U.S. pressure on Venezuela’s oil industry, including reported sales of seized Venezuelan crude and plans by the administration to control and invest in the country’s oil infrastructure.
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