A U.S. military helicopter hovers over an oil tanker seized early Saturday morning in international waters near Venezuela. Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard
Dec. 20 (UPI) — The U.S. Coast Guard led another seizure of an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela on Saturday after President Donald Trump declared a blockade of Venezuela.
The U.S. Navy and other federal entities participated in the seizure of the oil tanker, which is not among those sanctioned by the federal government, the Wall Street Journal, CBS News and CNN reported.
Armed U.S. personnel on military helicopters descended onto the tanker’s deck during the early morning hours on Saturday and seized it, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said in a social media post.
No one aboard the oil tanker resisted, and the United States seized it for carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
The seized tanker displayed a Panamanian flag and was carrying Venezuelan oil that it was to offload in Asia.
Much of Venezuela’s oil is shipped to China, which has privately owned teapot refineries that often buy and refine illicit oil from Venezuela, Iran and other sanctioned nations.
The president on Tuesday ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers as they enter or leave Venezuelan waters.
Saturday’s raid shows the blockade could affect any vessel that carries Venezuelan oil, as affirmed by Noem.
The United States on Wednesday seized a sanctioned oil tanker after it departed a Venezuelan port and diverted it to Texas, where Trump said the United States could keep the oil in its hold.
That tanker, The Skipper, was flying the flag of Venezuela’s neighbor, Guyana, officials for which said the vessel is not among those registered there.
Such activities are typical of a shadow fleet that uses deceptive tactics to hide where respective vessels are located and transport illicit oil, which often benefits Iran, Russia and other sanctioned states.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s government called The Skipper’s seizure an act of “piracy” and “robbery” and said the blockade is a “grotesque threat” that violates international law, according to CBS News.
Maduro’s regime accuses the United States of trying to “appropriate the oil, land and minerals of the country through gigantic campaigns of lies and manipulations.”
The blockade and tanker seizures are in addition to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats carrying illicit drugs destined for the United States and Europe.
Both tactics are efforts to isolate the Maduro regime, which Trump seeks to force out of power by depriving it of its primary revenue sources.
