US military seizes Venezuela oil tanker under Trump sanctions

The US military has seized another oil tanker at sea in support of Donald Trump’s sanctions against Venezuela, military officials announced on Thursday.Veronica, a crude oil tanker that marine records suggest is sailing under a Guyanese flag, was boarded in a pre-dawn action by US marines and sailors, the US Southern Command said in a post on social media.The operation was conducted in cooperation with the US Coast Guard, homeland security department and justice department, the post said. It included blurry, black-and-white aerial footage appearing to show service members descending on to the tanker’s deck from a helicopter.“[Forces] launched from USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78) and apprehended Motor/Tanker Veronica without incident. The Veronica is the latest tanker operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean, proving the effectiveness of Operation Southern Spear yet again,” the message said.It did not explain precisely where the operation took place, but according to marinetraffic.com the 815ft (249m) vessel’s last recorded position 12 days ago was off the coast of Venezuela.It is the sixth known boarding and seizure by the US military of a foreign-flagged oil tanker in support of Trump’s clamping down on the Venezuelan oil industry since the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in Caracas and subsequent removal to the US earlier this month.On Friday, Southern Command announced the boarding of a vessel named Olina in the Caribbean Sea near Trinidad, the fifth interdiction of such ships in recent weeks. That assault was also launched from the aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R Ford.Separately, there have been a series of strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of Venezuela since the autumn.The Trump administration has moved to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally after ousting Maduro.“The Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere,” Southern Command said in its post on Thursday.More details soon …