US forces just added another ship to their tally in the Caribbean. American troops seized a sixth oil tanker tied to Venezuela early Thursday, US Southern Command said, part of a widening crackdown on vessels accused of moving sanctioned crude, CBS News reports. In a pre-dawn operation, Marines and sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear deployed from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and boarded the tanker Veronica "without incident," the command said in a post on X, sharing video from the operation.
US officials describe the Veronica as operating in defiance of a Trump-ordered "quarantine" on blacklisted tankers around Venezuela. "The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully," Southern Command said. Reuters reports that records show the Guyana-flagged tanker left Venezuelan waters earlier this month. The ship has also been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a Russian company, the AP reports.
The move follows last week's seizure of three other Venezuela-linked tankers—the Marinera in the North Atlantic and the Olina and Sophia in the Caribbean—all part of what officials call a "shadow fleet" that shuttles oil for sanctioned governments including Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Two other tankers were seized before Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was seized in a US raid. Officials say the first US-managed sale of Venezuelan crude, worth about $500 million, has been completed, with additional sales planned as part of a broader strategy to market millions of barrels and oversee the resulting funds.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
