The United States has intercepted an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Saturday, a move that comes just days after US President Donald Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
It’s the second time in recent weeks that the United States has gone after a tanker near Venezuela amid a large U.S. military build-up in the region.
Noem confirmed the Coast Guard intercepted a tanker that was last docked in Venezuela.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” she said in a statement posted to social media. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
Three US officials earlier Saturday had told Reuters that the vessel had been intercepted.
The Coast Guard and Pentagon referred questions to the White House. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the tanker contained sanctioned oil.
“It was a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime,” she wrote on X.
Venezuela’s oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment. The Venezuelan government called the tanker interception a “serious act of international piracy.”
Venezuela “denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel transporting oil, as well as the forced disappearance of its crew, committed by military personnel of the United States of America in international waters,” the statement said.
Caracas said the actions will be reported to the United Nations Security Council, other multilateral organizations and governments.
British maritime risk management company Vanguard said the vessel was believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea.
Jeremy Paner, a partner at Washington, D.C., law firm Hughes Hubbard and a former OFAC investigator, said the vessel has not been sanctioned by the US.
An October police raid in northern Rio de Janeiro became the deadliest in Brazil’s history, after leaving more than 120 people dead.
“The seizure of a vessel that is not sanctioned by the US marks a further increase in Trump’s pressure on Venezuela,” Paner said. “It also runs counter to Trump’s statement that the U.S. would impose a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers.”