WASHINGTON: US forces boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean that violated President Donald Trump’s blockade of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean and fled the region, the Pentagon said Sunday.
The Panamanian-flagged Veronica III “tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away. We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down,” the Pentagon said on X.
The post included a video of US forces boarding a helicopter and then boarding the tanker ship.
The Pentagon intercepted the Aquila II in similar fashion about a week ago.
In December, Trump ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil vessels heading to and from Venezuela. At least nine ships have been seized thus far.
But those ships seized in recent months make up only a tiny fraction of the total number of sanctioned “shadow fleet” vessels operating worldwide to evade sanctions, which a senior US Coast Guard officer said number up to 800.
The Veronica III left Venezuela on January 3—the same day that US special forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid—carrying around 1.9 million barrels of oil, TankerTrackers said.
The ship is listed under US sanctions relating to Iran, according to the website of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.
“The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies freedom of movement in the maritime domain,” the Pentagon said on X.
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