The United States has successfully seized two oil tankers tied to Venezuela for breaching U.S. sanctions, drawing fresh international attention to escalating pressure on Caracas’s energy trade. According to U.S. military officials, the operations took place in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, with both vessels believed to have been either recently docked in Venezuela or en route to the country before their interception.
One of the captured tankers, previously known as Bella 1 and now renamed Marinera, was tracked and overtaken in the North Atlantic after evading a U.S. blockade of sanctioned ships around Venezuelan waters. The vessel, which was sanctioned in 2024 over alleged illicit oil shipments involving companies linked to Hezbollah, reportedly adopted a Russian flag in a bid to avoid detection. U.S. forces boarded the ship under a federal court warrant, bringing it under control without reported injuries.
In a coordinated move, U.S. security forces also seized a second vessel, identified as M Sophia, in the Caribbean. Officials described this oil tanker as part of a broader “ghost fleet” that transports sanctioned crude from Venezuela, Russia and Iran to international markets. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem emphasized the meticulous coordination of the back-to-back operations, which form part of an intensified enforcement campaign against sanction evasion.
The maritime actions come amid wider U.S. pressure on Venezuela’s oil sector, including recent military and diplomatic moves aimed at curbing sanctioned activities and asserting control over Venezuelan oil assets. While the U.S. has also signaled selective easing of some Venezuela sanctions to facilitate oil sales, the seizures mark a significant escalation in targeting vessels that defy Washington’s sanctions regime.
