The Trump administration is escalating its “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign by targeting shipping companies. (Reuters)
Caracas, December 12, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The US Treasury Department levied new sanctions against the Venezuelan oil industry as the Trump White House looks to strangle the Caribbean nation’s most important revenue source.
On Thursday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklisted six shipping companies for allegedly transporting Venezuelan crude. OFAC likewise identified six tankers, one from each sanctioned firm, as blocked property.
“Today’s action also targets Venezuela’s oil sector, which continues to fund Maduro’s illegitimate regime,” the US Treasury stated in a press release.
The Trump administration’s latest coercive measures mark an escalation in its efforts to target Venezuela’s oil industry. During his first term, Trump introduced a “maximum pressure” campaign that included financial sanctions, an export embargo and secondary sanctions against Venezuela’s oil sector.
In his second term, the White House withdrew Chevron’s license to extract and export crude from its ventures in Venezuela before issuing a new, limited waiver in May.
The latest sanctions come amid a large-scale US military buildup and deadly operations in the Caribbean under a self-declared anti-narcotics mission. However, reports from specialized agencies have contradicted the White House’s “narcoterrorism” accusations against Caracas.
Trump has issued repeated threats to attack purported drug targets inside Venezuelan territory. Analysts and political figures have argued that Washington’s true goal is regime change in order to take control of Venezuelan natural resources.
On Wednesday, the US Coast Guard led the seizure of an oil tanker carrying Venezuelan crude. The Skipper, which had been blacklisted by the US Treasury in 2021 for allegedly transporting Iranian crude, was commandeered in international waters while carrying an estimated 1.6 million barrels of crude bound for Asian markets.
Caracas condemned the move as “international piracy” and vowed to denounce it before international bodies. US officials told Reuters that more seizures are expected in the near future, while former Biden administration advisor Juan González raised the prospect of a naval blockade against the South American country.
Washington’s tanker drew widespread rejection, with US anti-war collective Code Pink calling it “21st century piracy.” The American Association of Jurists likewise issued a statement condemning US actions as illegal and a violation of international law.
US authorities had previously seized Venezuela-bound Iranian fuel in 2020. In November, a US warship blocked the path of a Russian tanker, forcing it to make a U-turn before eventually reaching its destination in eastern Venezuela.
Thursday’s coercive measures likewise included individual sanctions against Ramón Carretero, Carlos Malpica, Efrain Campo and Franqui Flores. Carretero, a Panamanian national, was targeted for alleged involvement in Venezuelan oil sales.
Malpica, Campo and Flores are nephews of Venezuelan First Lady and National Assembly Deputy Cilia Flores. Malpica had been previously designated in 2017 before being withdrawn from OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) in 2022. Campo and Flores were serving 18-year sentences on drug trafficking charges when they were released by the Biden administration in a prisoner exchange in 2022.
The sanctioned companies and individuals will see any US-based assets frozen, while US persons and firms are barred from conducting any business with them.
Oil production remains stable
Amidst recent US threats and escalatory actions, Venezuela’s oil sector has maintained a steady output level.
According to OPEC, production stood at 934,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, slightly below 961,000 bpd in October, as measured by secondary sources. Venezuela’s oil industry recovered from decades-low output levels in 2020 but has not managed to surpass the 1 million bpd threshold.
In contrast, state oil company PDVSA reported a higher output of 1.14 million bpd in November. The direct and secondary measurements have differed over time due to disagreements on the inclusion of natural gas liquids and condensates.
The recent tanker seizure is expected to hit Venezuelan oil revenues through higher shipping and insurance costs. PDVSA is forced to rely on intermediaries and levy significant discounts in order to place crude cargoes in international markets.
An oversupply of sanctioned crude from Iran and Russia has likewise cut into PDVSA’s profit margins in recent weeks.
Singapore has reported a growing number of “rogue” or “shadow fleet” tankers operating off its shores in and around one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors.
According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data cited by international maritime authorities, at least 27 such ships transited the Singapore Strait in early December, with another 130 clustered nearby around Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago.
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While traffic through the strait remains dense and appears outwardly routine – more than 80,000 vessels pass through it each year – ship-spotters and analysts say the profile of some of the ships using these waters has recently changed.
Why are so many ‘rogue’ tankers appearing near Singapore?
Conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East has sparked a surge in Western sanctions on oil exports from countries such as Russia and Iran. The European Commission and the United States Trump administration have both recently renewed or extended sanctions against Venezuelan oil, as well.
As a result, a parallel, unofficial maritime network has emerged to keep sanctioned oil moving.
The Singapore Strait is a vital artery for global maritime trade, carrying about one-third of the world’s traded goods at some point along their journeys. For tankers at sea, it is almost unavoidable – the strait is a natural gateway between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, also a busy trade artery.
The Maritime and Port Authority monitors vessel movements within Singaporean waters. But international law limits what action it can take once ships move into the high seas – in effect, international waters – allowing shadow fleets to thrive in regulatory grey zones.
In recent weeks, suspect shipping activity has been noted just beyond Singapore’s territorial waters – roughly 22.2 kilometres from its coast – in international waters, just outside of the city state’s law enforcement reach.
What are ‘shadow fleets’ and how do they avoid sanctions?
As a result of record sanctions by Western governments in recent years over Russia’s war in Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear programme and, most recently, United States President Donald Trump’s campaign against Venezuela, the number of falsely flagged ships globally has more than doubled this year to more than 450, most of them tankers, according to the International Maritime Organization database.
All vessels at sea are required to fly a flag showing the legal jurisdiction governing their operations in international waters. The body which grants ship nationalities is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
A shadow ship, or “ghost” ship, is typically an ageing vessel with obscure ownership. These vessels frequently change flags – for instance, when the US seized the tanker, Skipper, off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month, the government of Guyana, Venezuela’s neighbour, said it was “falsely flying the Guyana flag”, and clarified that it was not registered in the country.
Operators of shadow ships also falsify registration details, broadcast false geo-location codes, or even switch off tracking systems altogether to evade detection and skirt UNCLOS laws.
These vessels typically carry sanctioned oil and other restricted goods such as military equipment. They often conduct risky ship-to-ship transfers of cargo under the cover of night to avoid detection. This can create serious safety and environmental risks.
Additionally, most of the tankers are owned by shell companies in jurisdictions such as Dubai, where rapid buying and selling by anonymous or newly formed firms can take place, making it even harder to trace their origins.
Jennifer Parker, a specialist in maritime law at Australia’s University of New South Wales, said the increasing number of shadow fleets presents a “real challenge”.
Parker told Al Jazeera that “finding out who owns them and who insures them has been incredibly difficult because of the [murky] paper trail around them”.
She added that “often they would do what is called bunkering, which is the process of transferring fuel at sea between ships. So that makes it hard to track where that ship has actually come from and where that oil has come from.”
She added: “Sometimes, what they do is actually mix oil, so you will have a legitimate ship that will do a ship-to-ship transfer at sea with a shadow fleet and they will mix the oil so it becomes hard to really trace where that oil has come from … to avoid sanctions.”
What sort of problems do these tankers cause?
When ageing, uninsured vessels are involved in accidents, it can lead to environmental disasters like oil spills.
According to Bunkerspot, a specialist maritime publication, a shadow tanker spill, which can cause enormous damage to water, wildlife and local coastlines, can cost up to $1.6bn in response and cleanup alone.
Last December, Russian authorities scrambled to contain an oil spill in the Kerch Strait caused by two 50-year-old tankers which had been damaged during a heavy weekend storm. The scale of the environmental damage and the associated cleanup costs remain unclear.
In addition to vessel collisions, they can cause environmental damage through chemical leaks and illegal waste dumping.
A volunteer cleans up a bird covered in oil following an oil spill by two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, at a veterinary clinic in the Black Sea resort city of Saky, Crimea, on January 8, 2025 [Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters]
Who uses shadow fleets the most?
Russia is the primary beneficiary of ghost fleet trading. Moscow has largely maintained its oil exports despite Western sanctions, ensuring steady revenue for its war in Ukraine. Though not to the same extent, Iran and Venezuela also sell fossil fuels using ghost fleets.
China and India, currently the largest buyers of Russian crude, benefit from steep discounts, often purchasing oil well below the Western-imposed $60 per barrel price cap, which was imposed in December 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tracking by S&P Global and Ukrainian intelligence shows that Russia relied heavily on its shadow tanker fleet in 2025. India has been the main destination, importing about 5.4 million tonnes (or 55 percent of Russian crude oil sales via shadow tankers) between January and September.
China has taken a smaller but still significant share of about 15 percent. Overall, most Russian seaborne crude now moves outside Group of Seven (G7)-compliant shipping, underscoring the shadow fleet’s central role in this trade.
What actions have governments taken against shadow fleets?
To avoid enforcement of sanctions, many shadow tankers have moved out of major shipping lanes. In part, this is down to European authorities now requiring physical inspections during ship-to-ship transfers, making it riskier for these vessels to operate on conventional routes.
For instance, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland and Estonia recently began carrying out insurance checks on tankers transiting the Gulf of Finland and the waters between Sweden and Denmark. This is aimed at ensuring compliance with 2022 sanctions on Russian oil.
Meanwhile, in July 2025, the United Kingdom imposed measures – such as restrictions on access to UK ports, insurance and financial services – on 135 shadow fleet vessels and two linked firms, aiming to reduce Russia’s shipping capacity and cut its energy earnings.
In the US, President Donald Trump has warned that comparable measures will follow if Russia refuses to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine, raising the prospect of closer transatlantic coordination with the UK and Europe against shadow fleets.
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The Pentagon is continuing to pour assets into the Caribbean to beef up the Trump administration’s military pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and enhanced drug interdiction operations. As additional aerial refueling tankers arrive in the region, the White House is also reportedly preparing to seize more sanctioned oil tankers to further impact Maduro’s income.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to again explain to lawmakers the details of a Sept. 2 attack on a suspected drug boat that also killed the survivors of an initial strike on the vessel. Three more boats were destroyed yesterday in the Operation Southern Spear campaign that began as a counter-narcotics mission but has morphed into one aimed at Maduro.
On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known… pic.twitter.com/IQfCVvUpau
New imagery emerged on social media Monday showing that at least four more U..S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers have joined six aerial refuelers that recently arrived at Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas in the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, KC-46 Pegasus tankers have been flying sorties out of the U.S. Virgin Islands for months, with a major ramp-up in activity in recent weeks. As we previously noted, forward deploying the tankers reduces the amount of time needed to fly to the region and thus increases time on station and sortie rates.
In addition, an online airplane tracker using the @LatAmMovements X handle said more C-17 Globemaster III heavy cargo jets have arrived in Ecuador with supplies from Erbil, Iraq. The flight was the latest of several from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) region bolstering Southern Spear. CENTCOM declined to comment on that effort.
RCH937 out of MacDill AFB (KMCF) 🇺🇸 en route to Manta (MEC/SEMT) 🇪🇨.
This is the fourth Southern Spear-related cargo flight to Ecuador. This flight is carrying cargo from Erbil, Iraq.
The open-source tracker also found that at least nine C-17s have arrived in Puerto Rico from the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing, likely carrying supplies and troops ahead of the looming deployment of an unspecified number of F-35A stealth fighters, which we were the first to report. The Vermont National Guard (VNG) declined to offer any details. Low resolution satellite imagery we obtained shows C-17s in Puerto Rico.
RCH234 out of Burlington ANGB (KBTV) 🇺🇸 en route to Roosevelt Roads (RVR/TJRV) 🇵🇷.
This is the ninth cargo flight in support of the 158th FW’s upcoming deployment to PR.
As for the Navy, an official told us Tuesday morning that no new ships have joined the 11 already there, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is one of 11 Navy warships currently deployed to the Caribbean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Alyssa Joy)
Beyond equipment, U.S. Southern Command continues to expand its footprint in the region. On Monday, Trinidad and Tobago agreed to allow the U.S. military to use its airports for Southern Spear. That follows an earlier deployment by the U.S. Marine Corps of an AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR), a modern road-mobile multi-purpose AESA radar that can be used for air defense and more general air traffic control purposes.
Amid all these aircraft movements, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a new Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) warning them to “exercize caution” in and around Venezuelan airspace.
“OPERATORS ARE ADVISED TO EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN OPERATING IN THE MAIQUETIA FLIGHT INFORMATION REGION (SVZM FIR) AT ALL ALTITUDES DUE TO THE WORSENING SECURITY SITUATION AND HEIGHTENED MILITARY ACTIVITY IN OR AROUND VENEZUELA,” according to the NOTAM. “THREATS COULD POSE A POTENTIAL RISK TO AIRCRAFT AT ALL ALTITUDES, INCLUDING DURING OVERFLIGHT, THE ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE PHASES OF FLIGHT, AND/OR AIRPORTS AND AIRCRAFT ON THE GROUND.”
ATC audio of US Military aircraft operating DUE REGARD over the Caribbean Sea, this JetBlue pilot sounds pissed but what are they going to do about? 😎 https://t.co/Eq5yCmeEHy
On the economic front, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to take control of more oil tanker ships in the wake of the seizure of the M/T/ Skipper last week. The goal is to deprive Maduro of revenues gained from oil sales.
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. For multiple… pic.twitter.com/dNr0oAGl5x
There are upwards of 18 sanctioned oil-laden ships in Venezuela’s waters now, Axios reported. “Eight are classified as ‘Very Large Cargo Container ships’ like Skipper, which can carry nearly 2 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of the firm Tanker Trackers that monitors global shipping.”
So far, Trump has opted against moving into Venezuelan waters to seize any of these vessels, but that could soon change, Axios noted.
“We have to wait for them to move. They’re sitting at the dock. Once they move, we’ll go to court, get a warrant and then get them,” a Trump adviser told Axios. “But if they make us wait too long, we might get a warrant to get them” in Venezuelan waters.
While the Trump administration continues to insist that Southern Spear is directed at stemming the flow of drugs into the U.S., The New York Times on Tuesday suggested Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and competition from China are the real motivating factors.
“Venezuela and its oil lie at the nexus of two of Mr. Trump’s stated national security priorities: dominance of energy resources and control of the Western Hemisphere,” the newspaper noted. “Venezuela has about 17 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, or more than 300 billion barrels, nearly four times the amount in the United States. And no nation has a bigger foothold in Venezuela’s oil industry than China, the superpower whose immense trade presence in the Western Hemisphere the Trump administration aims to curb.”
Today I had the chance to read #China’s Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, released just a few days ago.
It is the first update to this document in 9 years and it came immediately after the “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine was released. I think the timing… pic.twitter.com/2fA0Atlw00
Against this backdrop, Hegseth and Rubio provided closed-door briefings to the Senate (SASC) and House Armed Services Committees (HASC) about the Sept. 2 boat strike. It was the first of nearly two dozen such attacks that have so far killed almost 90 people. These attacks – and especially the follow-up one on Sept. 2 that killed survivors – have been strongly condemned by various parties.
Hegseth promised to provide the committees with full versions of the video feed from that attack. Only snippets have been publicly released so far.
The full video of that attack will remain classified and won’t be shown to the public, Hegseth proclaimed. He also justified the boat attack campaign.
Southern Spear has been “a highly successful mission to counter designated terrorist organizations, cartels, bringing weapons – meaning drugs – to the American people and poison the American people for far too long,” Hegseth told reporters gathered at the Capitol. “So we’re proud of what we’re doing…”
Senators received a classified briefing from Secretary Marco Rubio and Secretary Pete Hegseth on the ongoing operations in the Caribbean today, but left without seeing the highly requested unedited video of the Sept. 2 boat strikes, senators said. https://t.co/ezRFeAMfn4pic.twitter.com/ga3uHgaP8M
In a somewhat surprising exchange, Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, suggested getting rid of Maduro may be the real reason Trump is expending so many resources and so much political capital in the Caribbean.
“Over lunch, Wiles told me about Trump’s Venezuela strategy,” Vanity Fair reporter Chris Whipple wrote Tuesday in the second part of an exclusive interview with one of Trump’s closest advisors. Wiles told the magazine that “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” The story continued, stating “Wiles’s statement appears to contradict the administration’s official stance that blowing up boats is about drug interdiction, not regime change.”
“Over lunch, Wiles told me about Trump’s Venezuela strategy: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” (Wiles’s statement appears to contradict the administration’s official stance that blowing up…
Trump’s true motivations and how he will act on them remain unknown. On Friday, he repeated his refrain that he may soon order strikes against drug traffickers on land in addition to those at sea. Meanwhile, some 15,000 U.S. troops who have surged to the region continue to wait for orders.
Update: 7:49 PM Eastern –
In a post on Truth Social, Trump offered the clearest indication of his motives and terms for the Caribbean build-up and how Venezuela’s oil reserves play a role.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us,” Trump wrote. “The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”
Trump also ordered “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela, however, he did not provide details of how that will work. We reached out to the White House for more information.
US President Donald Trump has said he is ordering a “a total and complete” blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.
In a post on Truth Social, he said Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s government had been designated a foreign terrorist organisation and accused it of stealing US assets, as well as “Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking”.
“Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” he added.
His remarks came a week after the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. In a statement, Venezuela’s government said it rejected Trump’s “grotesque threat”.
In his post, Trump said Venezuela was “completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America”.
He added that it will “only get bigger” and “be like nothing they have ever seen before”.
Trump also accused Maduro’s government of using stolen oil to “finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping”.
The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Venezuela of drug smuggling, and since September the US military has killed at least 90 people in strikes on boats it alleged were carrying fentanyl and other illegal drugs to the US.
In recent months, the US has also moved warships into the region.
Venezuela – home to some of the world’s largest proven oil reserves – has, in turn, accused Washington of seeking to steal its resources.
The US, under both Trump and former President Joe Biden, has opposed the Maduro government for years and pressed for him to be removed by instituting stringent sanctions.
Last week, the US imposed fresh sanctions on six more ships it said were carrying Venezuelan oil.
Sanctions were also placed on some of President Maduro’s relatives and on businesses associated with what the US called his illegitimate regime.
A day earlier the US said it had seized a tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
The White House said the seized vessel, called the Skipper, had been involved in “illicit oil shipping” and would be taken to an American port.
Venezuela’s government denounced the seizure, with Maduro saying the US “kidnapped the crew” and “stole” the ship.
The US had built up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, which borders Venezuela to the north, in the days before the raid.
It involved thousands of troops and USS Gerald Ford – the world’s largest aircraft carrier– being positioned within striking distance of Venezuela.
The order comes a week after the US military seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
Published On 17 Dec 202517 Dec 2025
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United States President Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all US-sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
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“For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump said.
“Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela,” he said.
Trump’s comments come a week after US forces seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela and as Washington has ordered a huge build-up of US military forces off the Venezuelan coast in an operation said to target drug smuggling.
The US military has killed at least 90 people since September in attacks on dozens of vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, in what international law experts have criticised as extrajudicial killings.
Washington claimed the vessels were involved in drug trafficking but has provided no evidence to support its allegations.
Caracas has long said the deployment of US forces to the region was aimed at allowing “external powers to rob Venezuela’s immeasurable oil and gas wealth“.
Despite holding the world’s largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela has faced severe restrictions on its exports in recent years under US sanctions first imposed during the first Trump presidency.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow shortly.
The Trump administration has imposed new sanctions on Venezuela, targeting three nephews of President Nicolas Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as six crude oil tankers and shipping companies linked to them, as Washington steps up pressure on Caracas.
Two of the sanctioned nephews were previously convicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges before being released as part of a prisoner exchange.
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The US is also targeting Venezuela’s oil sector by sanctioning a Panamanian businessman, Ramon Carretero Napolitano, whom it says facilitates the shipment of petroleum products on behalf of the Venezuelan government, along with several shipping companies.
The US Treasury Department said on Thursday that the measures include sanctions on six crude oil tankers it said have “engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime”.
Four of the tankers, including the 2002-built H Constance and the 2003-built Lattafa, are Panama-flagged, with the other two flagged by the Cook Islands and Hong Kong.
The vessels are supertankers that recently loaded crude in Venezuela, according to internal shipping documents from state oil company PDVSA.
‘An act of piracy’
In comments on Thursday night, Trump also repeated his threat to soon begin strikes on suspected narcotics shipments making their way via land from Venezuela to the US.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US would take the tanker to a US port.
“The vessel will go to a US port, and the United States does intend to seize the oil,” Leavitt said during a news briefing. “However, there is a legal process for the seizure of that oil, and that legal process will be followed.”
Maduro condemned the seizure, calling it “an act of piracy against a merchant, commercial, civil and private vessel,” adding that “the ship was private, civilian and was carrying 1.9 million barrels of oil that they bought from Venezuela”.
He said the incident had “unmasked” Washington, arguing that the true motive behind the action was the seizure of Venezuelan oil.
“It is the oil they want to steal, and Venezuela will protect its oil,” Maduro added.
Maduro’s condemnation came as US officials emphasised that the latest sanctions also targeted figures close to the Venezuelan leader.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro holds a sword which belonged to Ezequiel Zamora, a Venezuelan soldier [FILE: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters]
Maduro’s relatives targeted
Franqui Flores and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores, were also sanctioned. The two became known as the “narco nephews” after their arrest in Haiti in 2015 during a US Drug Enforcement Administration sting.
They were convicted in 2016 on charges of attempting to carry out a multimillion-dollar cocaine deal and sentenced to 18 years in prison, before being released in a 2022 prisoner swap with Venezuela.
A third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, was also targeted. US authorities allege he was involved in a corruption scheme at the state oil company.
Maduro and his government have denied links to criminal activity, saying the US is seeking regime change to gain control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
Beyond the individuals targeted, the US is also preparing to intercept additional ships transporting Venezuelan oil, the Reuters news agency reported, citing sources.
Asked whether the Trump administration planned further ship seizures, White House spokesperson Leavitt told reporters she would not speak about future actions but said the US would continue executing the president’s sanctions policies.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said on Thursday.
Wednesday’s seizure was the first of a Venezuelan oil cargo amid US sanctions that have been in force since 2019. The move sent oil prices higher and sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Caracas.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a news briefing [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]
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The Pentagon is continuing to rapidly add military capabilities to Operation Southern Spear, a mission that began as a counter-narcotics effort but is increasingly aimed at Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Images emerged online today of Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) aircraft having arrived in Puerto Rico. In addition, KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers are now flying missions out of the Dominican Republic. We also found that KC-46 Pegasus tankers have been flying sorties out of the U.S. Virgin Islands for months, with a major ramp-up in activity in recent weeks. This is all on top of yesterday’s arrival of EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets in Puerto Rico and the news we broke today that USAF F-35As are being sent to the Caribbean, as well.
Clearly, the Pentagon is moving into a posture in the region that is much better equipped for tactical air combat operations over hostile territory than it was just days ago.
Despite all this movement, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday afternoon that U.S. President Donald Trump does not want to see a protracted conflict in Venezuela.
“A prolonged war is something the president is not interested in,” she said, adding that Trump wants to “see the end of illegal drugs trafficked into the United States.”
On Thursday, Reuters published photos showing HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) planes and HH-60W Jolly Green Giant II CSAR helicopters on the ramp at Roosevelt Roads, the former U.S. Navy facility in Puerto Rico. These aircraft are stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, though the helicopters reportedly arrived from deployment to Kadena Air Base in Japan.
A Reuters image from today (11 Dec) shows 3x USAF HC-130Js from Moody AFB on the ramp at Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico.
The deployment of dedicated CSAR aircraft to the region is a sign that the Trump administration could be about to drastically increase its pressure on Maduro and go after the cartels inland with strikes. The aircraft are needed for rapid rescues of any aircrews that are lost during military operations, specifically over contested territory. While the Marine aviation force from USS Iwo Jima and its escorts are also capable of this mission, as are helicopters from the USS Gerald R. Ford, to varying degrees, the unique capabilities and the highly specialized crews the HC-130J and HH-60W bring to the table are prized. This is especially true now that USAF tactical airpower in the form of F-35As is about to arrive in-theater.
A U.S. Air Force HH-60W Jolly Green II (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Andrew Garavito) Senior Airman Andrew Garavito
The Stratotankers arrived in the Dominican Republic sometime around Sunday or Monday, according to the @LatAmMilMovements X account, an open-source tracker who has been closely following these deployments. They are now taking up a good portion of an entire runway at the airport.
A Sentinel-2 pass from today (10 Dec) shows a total of six USAF KC-135s at Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas (SDQ/MDSD) in the Dominican Republic.
From here, the tankers will continue to support E-3G and RC-135 missions in the Caribbean.
Forward deploying the tankers reduces the amount of time needed to fly to the region and thus increases time on station and sortie rates. The presence of these jets in the Dominican Republic also represents a widening of the mission’s footprint, a U.S. official told us. The bulk of U.S. land-based operations are run out of Puerto Rico, and Roosevelt Roads in particular.
Noted parked up at Santo Domingo Airport ( SDQ ) in the Dominican Republic today, 6 Boeing KC135 refueling aircraft of the United States Air Force pic.twitter.com/U4bnLhhFIQ
“This is an expansion of Southern Spear,” the U.S. official said of the Stratotanker presence in the Dominican Republic. “This is about capabilities and location. In case of any service support needed, you want to have that in a strategic area. The Dominican Republic is not too close, not too far and they have the capabilities to support a number of aircraft.”
The Dominican Republic is strategically located in the northern Caribbean. (Google Earth)
The Dominican Republic presence, however, was not the first tankers operating forward in the region. They have been operating out of the U.S. Virgin Islands for months.
A U.S. Air Force airfield manager assigned to the 6th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron marshals a KC-46A Pegasus on the flight line in Frederiksted, St. Croix, Oct. 29, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo) Senior Airman Katelynn Jackson
The KC-46s have been in the U.S. Virgin Islands since the middle of September, according to archived satellite imagery. This presence has grown steadily with now between five and six tankers being seen on the ramp there at any given time. The low-resolution satellite photo below was taken Dec. 9 and obtained by The War Zone via Planet Labs.
