US Military Catches Sanctioned Oil Tanker in Indian Ocean Weeks After It Left Venezuela

American military forces have intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after a month’s long chase that began half a world away in the Caribbean.The Department of Defense says forces boarded the Aquila II without incident overnight Monday. The military says the ship was operating in defiance of President Trump’s quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean as part of a crackdown on illicit Venezuelan oil.“It ran, and we followed,” the Pentagon said in a post on X. The post included video of troops lowering themselves from a helicopter onto the deck of the ship.“By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice,” the post went on to say. “You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us.”The Aquila II is Panamanian-flagged and owned by Hong Kong-based Linnet Marguerite, according to data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. It was added to the sanctions list for shipping Russian oil. The ship was one of more than a dozen tankers that left Venezuelan waters last month after American forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in an American raid on Venezuela.The ship is the eighth oil tanker the American military has intercepted in recent weeks in connection with sanctions evasions. The Pentagon did not specify if the Aquila II was seized or simply boarded for checks. Mr. Trump announced a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers coming from Venezuela in a pressure campaign on Mr. Maduro’s government. The pressure is continuing on Venezuela’s interim government with the Trump administration planning to control the country’s oil distribution for the foreseeable future.A shadow fleet made up of more than a thousand unregistered tankers — also known as a ghost fleet — carry embargoed oil from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela around the globe. S&P Global estimates that in 2025, 17 percent of tankers around the globe were part of the fleet attempting to avoid sanctions.The seizure of the Aquila II is the furthest American forces have tracked a ship from Venezuela’s waters. They previously tracked a tanker known as the Bella 1 for two weeks before seizing it in the North Atlantic. The crew had painted a crude Russian flag on the hull and the ship suddenly appeared in a Russian registry as the Marinera. The Russian government then asked American forces to stop following the ship. Two Russian crew members were handed over to Moscow after the ship was seized.Many Western countries have sanctions on the Russian oil industry due to the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. Some European countries have boarded suspicious vessels in the past few months, the Atlantic Council reports, but did not permanently seize most of them.France had seized one ship in the Mediterranean and was holding the Indian captain. The Grinch was initially stopped on January 22 on suspicion of flying a false flag. The tanker had previously been ported in northwestern Russia and was believed to be carrying a cargo of Russian oil.

US Military Catches Sanctioned Oil Tanker in Indian Ocean Weeks After It Left Venezuela

US Military Catches Sanctioned Oil Tanker in Indian Ocean Weeks After It Left Venezuela

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