US military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean
Oil tankers are docked at the Cardon refinery at sunset in Punta Cardon, Venezuela, on Jan. 14. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea as part of an effort to disrupt illicit oil shipments linked to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday. Several tankers had fled Venezuelan waters, including the ship intercepted overnight in the Indian Ocean, according to the Associated Press.
“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine,” the Pentagon said. The Defense Department added on X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III to carry out “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”
Venezuela has faced U.S. sanctions on its oil industry for years and has relied on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to move crude into global markets. President Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned vessels in December to pressure Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was captured in January during a U.S. military operation.
The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged tanker under U.S. sanctions tied to Iran, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. TankerTrackers.com said the ship departed Venezuela on Jan. 3 — the same day as Maduro’s capture — carrying nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil.
“Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil,” the organization said. Its co-founder, Samir Madani, told the AP in January that satellite imagery and surface photos showed at least 16 tankers leaving the Venezuelan coast in violation of the quarantine.
The Trump administration has been boarding and seizing tankers as part of a broader campaign to gain control over Venezuela’s oil exports. The Pentagon did not say whether the Veronica III was formally seized or placed under U.S. control.
Last week, U.S. forces boarded another tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II. A defense official said the ship was being held while U.S. authorities determined its ultimate disposition.
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