Washington Announces Capture of Two Venezuela-Linked Oil Tankers Amid Sanctions Crackdown

Shiva K Dhakal
National Press Corporation(NPC)
United Kingdom—The United States has seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic and a second vessel linked to Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, as Washington intensifies enforcement of sanctions on oil shipments connected to Caracas.

U.S. authorities, including the Coast Guard and military forces, carried out back-to-back boarding operations against two “ghost fleet” tankers on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The first vessel, Marinera, was formerly known as Bella 1 and had been tracked for more than two weeks after eluding a U.S. maritime blockade of sanctioned tankers near Venezuela. At the time of capture in the North Atlantic, its Automatic Identification System had been activated and it was sailing some 200 kilometres south of Iceland, according to open-source tracking data.

Originally sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for alleged involvement in smuggling oil for entities tied to Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, the tanker had previously resisted a Coast Guard boarding attempt in the Caribbean last month. After that encounter, it sailed into the Atlantic, was renamed Marinera and reflagged under Russia, a move U.S. officials say was intended to evade seizure.

U.S. European Command confirmed the North Atlantic seizure was executed under a federal court warrant and is part of a broader campaign to uphold U.S. sanctions on oil trade “that threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere.”

In a separate operation in international waters near the Caribbean, the Coast Guard also apprehended a second tanker, identified by U.S. officials as M/T Sophia, which was likewise linked to Venezuela and was operating without a valid flagged status.

The Russian government has criticised the Atlantic seizure, asserting that the Marinera was legitimately registered and should not have been subject to force in international waters. Moscow’s foreign ministry warned that heightened military attention was “disproportionate,” and has reiterated its support for Venezuela’s right to sovereign trade.

These actions mark a significant escalation in U.S. efforts to disrupt sanctioned oil shipments as part of a Trump administration strategy to pressure Venezuela. They also raise the prospect of heightened diplomatic tension with Russia, given the involvement of a Russian-flagged vessel in the Atlantic operation.