US Intercepts Oil Tanker Off Venezuela Coast

US forces on Saturday stopped an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela for the second time in less than two weeks as President Donald trump continues to ramp up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The pre-dawn operation comes days after Trump announced a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of the South American country and follows the December 10 seizure by American forces of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the US Coast Guard, with help from the Defense Department, stopped the oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela. She also posted on social media an unclassified video of a US helicopter landing personnel on a vessel called Centuries.

A crude oil tanker flying under the flag of Panama operates under the name and was recently spotted near the Venezuelan coast, according to MarineTraffic, a project that tracks the movement of vessels around the globe using publicly available data. It was not promptly clear if the vessel was under US sanctions.

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“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 on X.”We will find you, and we will stop you.”

The action was a “consented boarding,” with the tanker stopping voluntarily and allowing US forces to board it, according to a US official.