MIAMI - On Wednesday, U.S. forces intercepted an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, as tensions between the United States and the Maduro government heat up in the South Caribbean.
The Pentagon has deployed a sizable force of U.S. assets to the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford–the world's largest aircraft carrier–as part of anti-drug trafficking operations to stem the flow of illicit narcotics into the United States.
"We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela — a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually", President Trump announced during a White House meeting in the Roosevelt Room earlier this afternoon.
The president also added that the tanker was "seized for a very good reason".
🚨🇺🇸🇻🇪 | U.S.-VENEZUELA TENSIONS: U.S. forces intercept an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. The Trump administration says the seizure was "for a good reason" as the Pentagon expands operations in the region. pic.twitter.com/1rUDlRyLDq
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Tensions between the United States and the socialist regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro have reached a feverish pitch since U.S. operations began in the Caribbean Sea during the summer.
In November, the U.S. State Department announced that it was officially designating the Venezuela-backed criminal network–Cartel de los Soles–as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), allowing the Pentagon more latitude in the conduct of military operations targeting the organization, which the White House claims to be run by top members of the Maduro regime.
The oil tanker has been identified as ship name, Skipper, a Guyana-flagged "Very Large Crude Carrier," or VLCC, according to Matt Smith, head analyst at U.S. energy consulting firm, Kpler.
Smith also added that the tanker seized by U.S. forces was covertly loaded with 1.1 million barrels of oil in mid-November.
The U.S. Attorney General, Pamela Bondi, wrote on X:
"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."
Bondi also added that the tanker "has been sanctioned by the U.S. for years... due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations."
The news of the oil tanker seizure also comes as U.S. fighter jets transgressed into Venezuelan airspace on the same day.
