The United States Navy is on the hunt for a group of over a dozen oil tankers that have been sanctioned by Donald Trump after illegally entering Venezuelan waters.
Last month, weeks before the capture of leader Nicolas Maduro, Trump said he had ordered a ‘blockade’ of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, a policy the government in Caracas branded ‘theft’.
The US is now trying to stop a cooperative between as many as 16 tankers trying to leave Venezuelan waters, with the US boarding only one in their Wednesday seizure, The New York Times reported.
At least one tanker flipped its flag to Russia and changed its name to stop American forces from boarding them and another three have registered as Russian. Others are reportedly lying about their locations.
Four of the ships were seen heading east on the Atlantic Ocean, while another five sailed through the Caribbean earlier this week.
The remaining free tanker was seen off the coast of Colombia and the remaining five have yet to be located.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Pentagon and US Southern Command for comment.
Wednesday, it was confirmed the US seized a Russian-flagged tanker linked to Venezuelan oil in a daring commando-style raid, after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic.
The United States Navy is on the hunt for a group of over a dozen oil tankers that have been sanctioned by Donald Trump after illegally entering Venezuelan waters
This image from video provided by the U.S. Department of Defense, shows the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro shadowing the MV Bella 1 in the North Atlantic Ocean during the maritime interdiction operation Wednesday, January 7, 2026
The United States seized a Russian-flagged tanker linked to Venezuelan oil in a daring commando-style raid, after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic.
In a post on X, the U.S. military’s European Command said the Trump administration had seized the vessel for violating US sanctions.
‘The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,’ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in reply to that post.
Two US officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Wednesday’s operation was carried out by the Coast Guard and U.S. military.
US special forces initially helped secure the tanker but left the vessel, which was now under Coast Guard control, one of the officials said.
The officials said Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine. It was unclear how close the vessels were to the operation, but there were no indications of a confrontation between U.S. and Russian military forces.
Russia’s transport ministry said it had lost all contact with the Marinera after U.S. naval forces boarded it. A senior Russian lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, Andrei Klishas, said the U.S. seizure was an act of outright piracy, the TASS state news agency reported.
Last year, French Navy commandos detained a tanker suspected of operating for Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ off the coast of western France.
Wednesday, it was confirmed the US seized a Russian-flagged tanker linked to Venezuelan oil in a daring commando-style raid, after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic
The vessel tanker Bella 1 at Singapore Strait, after US officials say the US Coast Guard pursued an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, in this picture taken from social media on March 18, 2025
The seizure was seen by some as the unilateral action of an America-first government with scant regard for other countries’ views.
Dramatic photos in Russian media purportedly show a helicopter – believed to be an American MH-6 Little Bird – swooping close to the rogue vessel before it was captured by US forces around 124 miles south of the Icelandic coast.
The Marinera ship – originally known as the Bella-1 – made an abrupt turn Wednesday afternoon and was heading towards Britain, according to ship tracking data.
In a fresh humiliation for Vladimir Putin, the operation occurred in the vicinity of Russian military personnel.
Trump’s latest power play came after the Marinera slipped through a US maritime ‘blockade’ of sanctioned vessels and rebuffed US Coast Guard efforts to board it.
The operation, during which no American personnel were injured, is a show of strength against the Russian dictator – days after the US seized the ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in a lightning raid and threatened to takeover Greenland.
Russia’s foreign ministry begged the US to ‘ensure humane and dignified treatment’ of Russian citizens on board the vessel, and warning the US not to hamper their return to their homeland.
The tanker is the latest to be targeted by the US Coast Guard since the start of Trump‘s pressure campaign against Venezuela.
Last month, the US Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean, armed with a warrant to seize the ship over alleged breaches of US sanctions and claims it had shipped Iranian oil.
However, the tanker then abruptly changed course, renamed itself Marinera and was added to an official Russian ship database
At one point while being pursued, the crew of the vessel painted a Russian flag on its hull, claiming it was sailing under Russian protection, and Moscow made a formal diplomatic request that the US stop its chase.
The seizure of the Marinera occurred alongside a raid on a second Venezuela-linked oil tanker called the M/T Sophia.
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