The U.S. Coast Guard was “actively pursuing a sanctioned Dark Fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion” over the weekend, an official told ABC News.
“It was flying a false flag and was subject to a judicial seizure order,” the official said at the time.
An official told ABC News on Monday that the tanker, named Bella 1, was not full of cargo and was en route to obtain oil when U.S. authorities attempted to board the vessel.
@Sec_Noem – Photo: In a screenshot of a video posted by Secretary of State Kristi Noem, the U.S. Coast Guard seizes an oil tanker that last docked in Venezuela on December 20, 2025.
The ship escaped into the Atlantic and was not flying a legal flag, giving the Coast Guard the right to try to seize the ship.
The details were first reported by The New York Times.
The U.S. Coast Guard seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, just 10 days after it seized a sanctioned oil tanker.
Kpler, a data company that tracks shipping and logistics networks, said that unlike the first vessel seized, the tanker seized on Saturday was not on any U.S., EU, U.K. or U.N. sanctions lists.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Saturday’s operation in a social media post, saying the Coast Guard, with support from the Department of Defense, “apprehended” the tanker in a predawn operation. The tanker was last docked in Venezuela, she said.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit flow of sanctioned oil used to fund narco-terrorism in the region,” Noem said in the post. “We will find you and we will stop you.”
Last week, President Trump threatened to impose what he called a “total and total blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela — a move that could devastate the Venezuelan economy, as oil exports are the lifeblood of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Noem says U.S. seizes another ship in Caribbean
In response to Trump’s statement, Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” was regime change.
“This will never happen, never, never, never — Venezuela will never be colonized by anything or anyone, never,” Maduro said.
The United States has amassed its largest military presence in the Caribbean in decades, including the world’s largest aircraft carrier.
So far, the Pentagon has also attacked 28 suspected drug-trafficking ships in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 100 people, but has not provided any public evidence that the ships were carrying illegal drugs, nor has it disclosed the identities of the victims.
