U.S. Coast Guard seizes sanctioned vessel off Venezuela, officials say – NBC Los Angeles

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Saturday confirmed that the United States Coast Guard“apprehended” an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast.

“In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil 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,” Noem wrote in a post on X. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”

Earlier Saturday, two U.S. officials told NBC News that the Coast Guard was in the middle of an ongoing operation off the Venezuelan coast. It was first reported by Reuters.

The Coast Guard took the lead in the operation, both officials said. The U.S. military supported with helicopters that dropped off Coast Guard personnel and observed overhead, one of the officials said.

In her post Saturday, Noem referred to the boat as an “oil tanker” carrying “sanctioned oil,” but did not say whether the boat itself was sanctioned and whether the U.S. had a warrant. 

The tanker is not on a list of vessels sanctioned by the U.S., according to someone familiar with the list.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that a “lightning strike operation” was executed Saturday morning “to seize the Motor Tanker Centuries, which is suspected of carrying oil subject to U.S. sanctions.” 

The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment and to clarify whether the U.S. intends to keep the oil on board. 

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said on X that the tanker contained sanctioned oil from PDVSA, a state-owned oil and natural gas company. 

“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 said.

Venezuela’s minister of the interior, Diosdado Cabello, condemned the operation in a Saturday post on Instagram.

“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as the forced disappearance of its crew, committed by military personnel of the United States of America in international waters,” Cabello said. 

Saturday’s operation comes after the U.S. interdicted a large, sanctioned oil tanker known as the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela last week. The ship, previously identified by the Treasury Department as the Adisa, is an oil tanker tied to a sanctions-evading smuggling network that U.S. officials say moved Iranian oil to generate revenue for Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

After that seizure, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted about the operation and said the U.S. had “executed a seizure warrant” and that the “oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States.”

Noem called that operation a successful one, “to ensure that we’re pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans.”

After that operation, the Trump administration sanctioned six more ships believed to be carrying Venezuelan oil.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of war with Venezuela.

On Tuesday, Trump ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers coming and going from Venezuela, increasing pressure on the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

The administration’s campaign has already resulted in 28 known boat strikes that have killed more than 100 people, including a “double tap” strike facing congressional scrutiny.

President Donald Trump said that Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro doesn’t want to mess around with the United States, following a series of strike against alleged Venezuelan drug cartel boat in international waters.