American forces have seized an oil tanker they had been tracking after it fled the Venezuelan coast more than two weeks ago, the U.S. European Command confirms.

Special Forces, along with the Coast Guard, boarded the tanker formerly known as Bella 1 in the North Atlantic on Wednesday. In a post on X, the American military announced the ship was seized for violating sanctions against Venezuela’s oil industry “pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court.”

The vessel — part of a “shadow fleet” of unregistered tankers carrying embargoed oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela — was not flying a valid flag when American forces first sought to stop it as it approached Venezuela last month. It turned around and fled. The Bella 1 was sanctioned by the Biden administration in 2024 for allegedly smuggling oil on behalf of a company linked to Hezbollah.

Its crew later painted a crude Russian flag on the hull of the ship and the vessel suddenly appeared in the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping under the name Marinera, based in the Black Sea port city of Sochi.

The Russian government asked American forces to stop following the tanker and reportedly deployed a vessel to escort the ship, but it was not near the tanker when it was seized, according to the New York Times.

In a statement to the state-owned news network RIA, Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the situation “abnormal,” according to Open Source Intelligence Monitor, which focuses on coverage of conflicts across the globe. 

American forces also seized another tanker off Latin America on Wednesday. That ship — called the M Sophia — was “conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea,” the U.S. Southern Command said in an X post. The United States Coast Guard is escorting the “stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker” back to American shores, according to the American military.

The new actions come as several other oil tankers have reportedly reflagged as Russian-owned in an attempt to avoid seizure. The New York Times reported that at least four other tankers besides the Bella 1 had switched to Russian flags in recent days.

Mr. Trump announced a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers coming from Venezuela in the weeks before a bold raid to capture President Nicolás Maduro. Mr. Maduro is now in a New York jail facing multiple charges and the Trump administration is set to exploit Venezuelan oil. The country has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves.

On Wednesday morning, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the American government will begin selling Venezuelan oil on the world market.

“Going forward we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace,” Mr. Wright said in a speech at an energy conference in Florida. The money from the sales will reportedly be held in American banks.

That announcement comes after President Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Tuesday evening that Venezuela would “be turning over” between 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to be shipped to the United States. Most of Venezuela’s previous oil exports had gone to China.

Executives from the major oil companies were expected to meet at the White House on Friday. Oil stocks shot higher in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning.