coast

Dec. 10 (UPI) — The United States seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela amid ongoing tensions between President Donald Trump and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The tanker was seized during a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” that had docked in Venezuela, Bloomberg reported.

“Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a late-afternoon post on X.

U.S. officials sanctioned the oil tanker several years ago due to its “involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” Bondi explained.

“This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely — and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues.”

U.S. military personnel seized the tanker by fast-roping from a helicopter to board it, Bloomberg reported.

Trump earlier confirmed the tanker’s seizure at the start of a 2 p.m. EST roundtable at the White House.

“We’ve just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela — the largest tanker ever seized,” Trump said at the start of the roundtable meeting.

He said “it was seized for a very good reason” and the “appropriate people” would address the matter when asked for more information by a reporter.

The vessel’s seizure occurred as the Trump administration has been applying pressure on Maduro, whom Trump has accused of being a narco-trafficker and of stealing the country’s 2024 presidential election by declaring himself the winner.

The Trump administration has designated Cartel de los Soles aka Cartel of the Sun a foreign terrorist organization that includes many Venezuelan military and government officials among its leadership.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a carrier strike group to join other U.S. Navy vessels in the Caribbean Sea amid ongoing strikes against small craft departing Venezuela and other nations that are alleged tobe carrying illicit drugs.

The oil tanker’s seizure and the presence of the U.S. military in international waters near Venezuela are likely to discourage oil companies from transporting Venezuelan crude oil.

“Shippers will likely be much more cautious and hesitant about loading Venezuelan crude going forward,” Kpler oil analyst Matt Smith told CNBC.

Rystad Energy’s Jorge Leon, who is in charge of the firm’s geopolitical analysis, told Bloomberg the U.S. seizure of a “Venezuelan tanker” is a “clear escalation from financial sanctions to physical interdiction.”

The seizure “raises the stakes for Caracas and anyone facilitating its exports,” Leon said.

The Trump administration also has advised international airlines to be cautious when approaching Venezuela, which has caused many to suspend operations there.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Using U.S. forces to seize an oil tanker is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump said “other things are happening,” but did not offer additional details, saying he would speak more about it later.

The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that the seizure was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. Locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions, the state-owned oil company sells most of its output at a steep discount to refiners in China.

The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries as sanctions scared away more established traders. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.

During past negotiations, among the concessions the U.S. has made to Maduro was approval for oil giant Chevron Corp. to resume pumping and exporting Venezuelan oil. The corporation’s activities in the South American country resulted in a financial lifeline for Maduro’s government.

Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that Venezuela is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”

Maduro, flanked by senior officials, said that only the ruling party can “guarantee peace, stability, and the harmonious development of Venezuela, South America and the Caribbean.”

The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace since the start of the administration’s pressure campaign. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered any details on location.

It was not immediately clear who owned the tanker or what national flag it was sailing under. The Coast Guard referred a request for comment to the White House.

Madhani and Toropin write for the Associated Press. AP writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

Dec. 6 (UPI) — The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Munro seized more than 10 tons of cocaine from a drug-running vessel south of Mexico in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday.

The seizure from an open-bowed vessel that was equipped with three large outboard motors is the largest drug interdiction done at sea in nearly two decades, CBS News reported.

The interdiction began with a sniper in a helicopter targeting and disabling the drug boat’s motor, which enabled the Munro’s crew to board it and capture its crew and drug cargo.

The mission was carried out as part of the military’s Operation Pacific Viper campaign against drug running on the open sea.

As part of the operation, the Coast Guard “has accelerated counter-narcotics operations across the eastern Pacific and delivered historic results in the fight against narco-terrorists,” Coast Guard officials said Friday in a post on X.

“Our maritime fighting force is leading America’s drug interdiction operations, protecting the homeland and keeping deadly drugs out of American communities,” Coast Guard officials said. “This is where defense of America begins.”

The amount of cocaine seized is capable of causing 7.5 million overdose deaths.

The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard initiated Operation Pacific Viper in August as part of President Donald Trump‘s effort to better protect U.S. citizens against illicit drugs and the cartels that smuggle them into the United States.

The Coast Guard in October reported seizing 100,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific during the opening months of Operation Pacific Viper.

In November, the Coast Guard said it had seized more than 500,000 pounds of cocaine during the 2025 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30.

The amount seized during the fiscal year is the most ever taken in a year by the Coast Guard and more than three times its average annual take of 167,000 pounds of the drug.