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Washington — U.S. subject forces boarded another sanctioned tanker successful the Indian Ocean aft tracking the vas from the Caribbean Sea successful an effort to people illicit lipid connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions connected its lipid for respective years, relying connected a shadiness fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into planetary proviso chains. President Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers successful December to unit then-President Nicolás Maduro earlier Maduro was apprehended successful January during an American subject operation.
Several tankers fled the Venezuelan seashore successful the aftermath of the raid, including the vessel that was boarded successful the Indian Ocean. The Defense Department said successful a station connected X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III, conducting "a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding."
"The vas tried to defy President Trump's quarantine - hoping to gaffe away," the Pentagon said. "We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and unopen it down."
Video posted connected societal media by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker:
We support the Homeland forward. Distance does not support you.
Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Veronica III without incidental successful the INDOPACOM country of responsibility.
The vas tried to defy President Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/Tran3cLR9g
The Veronica III is simply a Panamanian-flagged vas nether U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Panama Maritime Authority said Sunday successful a little connection that the vessel was nary longer registered determination and had been canceled successful December 2024.
The Veronica III near Venezuela connected Jan. 3, the aforesaid time arsenic Maduro's capture, with astir 2 cardinal barrels of crude and substance oil, TankerTrackers.com posted Sunday connected X.
"Since 2023, she's been progressive with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil," the enactment said.
Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told The Associated Press successful January that his enactment utilized outer imagery and surface-level photos to papers that astatine slightest 16 tankers near the Venezuelan seashore successful contravention of the quarantine.
The Trump medication has been seizing tankers arsenic portion of its broader efforts to instrumentality power of the Venezuela's oil. The Pentagon did not accidental successful the station whether the Veronica III was formally seized and placed nether U.S. control, and aboriginal told the AP successful an email that it had nary further accusation to supply beyond that post.
Last week, the U.S. subject boarded a antithetic tanker successful the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II. The vessel was being held portion its eventual destiny was decided by the United States, according to a defence authoritative who spoke past week connected information of anonymity to sermon ongoing decision-making.
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