U.S. Military Boards Sanctioned Venezuelan Tanker in Indian Ocean After Tracking from Caribbean

Sunday, February 15, 2026

U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea, the Pentagon said Sunday.

Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains.

President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure Nicolas Maduro before the Venezuelan strongman was seized in January during an American raid.

Several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast following the raid, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight.

The Pentagon stated on X that U.S. forces conducted “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding” of the Veronica III.

“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.”

Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker.

The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged vessel under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to data from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Panama Maritime Authority reported Sunday that the ship was no longer registered and had been canceled in December 2024.

The Veronica III departed Venezuela on January 3, the same day as Maduro’s capture, carrying nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil.

A tracking organization stated: “Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil.”

Samir Madani, who previously provided data to media in January, said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine.

The Trump administration has been seizing tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of Venezuela’s oil.

The Pentagon stated it had no additional information beyond what was posted regarding whether the Veronica III was formally seized and placed under U.S. control.

Last week, U.S. military forces boarded another tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II.

The ship remains under U.S. custody as its ultimate fate is decided by American authorities, according to an anonymous defense official who spoke last week.