US forces board second sanctioned oil tanker in Indian Ocean

THE US military boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel for thousands of miles, saying it tried to circumvent President Donald Trump’s energy blockade in the Caribbean against sanctioned ships. 

The Pentagon, in a post on X Sunday, said US forces conducted a “right-of-visit, maritime interdiction” on the Veronica III without incident. Video footage posted by the department appeared to show US soldiers boarding a helicopter and then positioning themselves aboard the tanker. 

“We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down,” the department said, though it didn’t say whether the US had formally seized the vessel.

The Veronica III, which travels under the Panamanian flag, is subject to US sanctions related to Iran, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The US imposed in December what the Trump administration has described as an energy quarantine, deploying its Naval fleet to cut off Venezuela’s oil exports and seizing sanctioned oil vessels. That blockade has continued even after a Jan 3 military strike to remove Nicolas Maduro from power. 

The interdiction follows a cat-and-mouse chase along the same body of water that culminated in the US military boarding the Aquila II tanker last week, underscoring how far Washington is prepared to go.

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“Distance does not protect you,” the Defense Department said in Sunday’s post. “International waters are not sanctuary. By land, air, or sea, we will find you and deliver justice.” BLOOMBERG