True enough. Donald Trump’s escalation against Nicolas Maduro has never solely focused on reversing a stolen election in Venezuela, or even on the drug trade, as worthy as those issues may be. Trump hasn’t taken aim at Venezuela’s oil exports in a bilateral sanctions enforcement context either, as has been obvious from the start.
However, the Wall Street Journal reports today that the Trump administration has a wider focus than just the Western Hemisphere, too, even in the narrow context of oil trade. The attempt to seize the Bella I shows how the White House plans to attack the entire shadow fleet of black-market tankers that fund hostile regime and terror networks around the world:
The U.S.’s pursuit of oil tankers around Venezuela is part of a new legal strategy under the Trump administration to seize ships that transport black market oil around the world, according to Justice Department officials.
The fresh approach has been seen in recent days by the Coast Guard’s pursuit of the Bella 1, a sanctioned oil tanker whose crew refused to be boarded on Sunday. The Bella 1 is the third tanker to be targeted after the U.S. took control of two other very large crude carriers, the Skipper and the Centuries.
Unlike the Skipper and the Centuries, which were full of nearly 2 million barrels of Venezuelan oil at the time the U.S. boarded them, analysts at Kpler, a shipping data and analytics provider, say the Bella 1 was likely empty when the U.S. began pursuing it. A few days after the Skipper was seized by the U.S., the Bella 1 initially made a U-turn away from Venezuela before turning back toward the country, the analysts say.
The news media have not reported much on the Bella 1, other than its current flight from the US Navy and ambiguous references to sanctions. The shipping site gCaptain has done a deep dive on the Bella I (or Bella 1), and found a very interesting history of its operations:
Shipping database Equasis shows the Bella 1 was previously flagged in Panama, but its current registration is listed as “unknown.” United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which designates the vessel under its “Ghost Armada” list, shows the vessel as flying a false flag (Guyana), rendering it stateless.
Unlike the Centuries, which had not appeared on public U.S. sanctions lists, the Bella 1 has a well-documented sanctions record. Treasury documents from June 2024 show that Panama-based Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises S.A., the vessel’s registered owner, was designated under for carrying sanctioned cargo on behalf of Hizballah-owned Concepto Screen SAL Off-Shore to Southeast Asia.
The designation cited the company for having “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force. The Bella 1 was simultaneously identified as blocked property in which Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises S.A. has an interest.
The action came alongside sanctions against Hong Kong-based Lainey Shipping Limited, owner of the Panama-flagged Janet, in what Treasury described as a coordinated effort to disrupt financing streams to both Hezbollah and the IRGC-QF. Both vessels were identified as blocked property under Executive Order 13224, the primary legal framework targeting terrorists and their support networks.
The author, Mike Schuler, has much more on the Hezbollah connections. The New York Times covered this briefly as well; Schuler gives more detail. As I wrote yesterday, the fact that the US Navy and US Coast Guard went after the Bella I while it sailed empty is significant, the WSJ explains further:
While the U.S. has previously targeted sanctioned oil, it is now increasingly focused on seizing ships that make up the so-called “ghost fleet” and serve the global black market for oil, the officials said. …
The unit has pursued similar cases for years, but its work has increased dramatically this year, officials said. Given the current resources being devoted to oil tankers, they said the group can work up the information necessary to submit a seizure warrant to the court in a matter of weeks.
With more U.S. warrants being processed, the seizures threaten to dramatically reduce the flow of Venezuelan crude. It could also cause disruptions and shortages for other countries that use the shadowy network of tankers to buy and sell oil, including Cuba, Iran, Russia and China.
In other words, this conflict with Maduro means a lot more to America’s national and international security than just an ideological tiff with a socialist dictator. Trump wants to dismantle the systems that undergird terrorism and disconnect its benefits to America’s geopolitical foes in Moscow and Beijing, but especially in Tehran. The Bella I won’t be the last tanker that the US chases down and boards, regardless of whether it carries Venezuelan oil at that moment or not.
This has direct implications for US policy on Iran and the region, as Gregg Roman from Middle East Forum told me yesterday. Hezbollah and Iran’s IRGC have both been operating in Venezuela for decades, and those tentacles now go all across Latin America. However, Maduro is still the linchpin for the Iranian regime, which is why his ouster matters most to Trump and his new “Donroe Doctrine.”
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