A U.S. official tells ABC News that the U.S. Coast Guard is “actively pursuing a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.”
“He is flying a false flag and is under a judicial seizure order,” the official added.
The action comes after the US Coast Guard seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, just ten days after the seizure of a sanctioned tanker.
Unlike the first vessel seized, the tanker seized Saturday is not on any sanctions list maintained by the United States, the EU, the United Kingdom or the United Nations, according to Kpler, a data company that tracks transportation and logistics networks.
In a screenshot from a video posted by Secretary Kristi Noem, the U.S. Coast Guard detains an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela on December 20, 2025.
@Sec_Noem
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Saturday’s operation in a post on social mediasaying the Coast Guard “stopped” the tanker with support from the Department of Defense in a pre-dawn action. He said the tanker had last arrived at port in Venezuela.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil used to finance narcoterrorism in the region,” Noem said in the post. “We will find you and stop you.”
Last week, President Trump threatened to impose what he called “a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers” traveling to and from Venezuela, a move that could devastate the Venezuelan economy, as oil exports are the lifeblood of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
In response to Trump’s announcement, Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change.
“This simply will not happen, never, never, never; Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, ever,” Maduro said.
The United States has amassed the largest military presence in the Caribbean in decades, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
The Pentagon has also so far attacked 28 suspected drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 100 people, without providing any public evidence that the ships were carrying illegal drugs or identifying the dead.
