The U.S. is intercepting another vessel days after President Donald Trump announced a “complete blockade” on all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela as part of the administration’s ramped-up pressure against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Three U.S. officials on Saturday confirmed the ongoing operation to The Washington Post but did not provide additional details on the location or the type of cargo suspected of being on the vessel. Reuters reported that the operation took place off the coast of Venezuela in international waters.
The move is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard with support from U.S. military assets, two of the officials said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been announced. The U.S. military has at least 11 warships patrolling in the area, including the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford. The Coast Guard is an Armed Forces branch under the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. forces in the Caribbean last week seized a sanctioned vessel loaded with oil after it left Venezuela. Since September, the military has also conducted 27 strikes that have killed more than 100 people on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that the U.S. said were carrying drugs.
As of last week, there were more than 30 tankers in the Caribbean designated by the Treasury Department as sanctioned that could be affected immediately by the blockade, according to analysis from the independent ship-tracking site TankerTrackers.com and global intelligence company Kpler.
Of those, at least 12, including the Skipper, which U.S. forces seized last week, are carrying Venezuelan oil, according to Kpler.
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