US seized another ship in Caribbean, says Noem

The US Coast Guard intercepted a sanctioned ship off the coast of Venezuela in international waters of the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, according to US officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the seizure in a post on social mediasaying there was support from the Department of Defense for the Coast Guard’s predawn action. He said the tanker had last arrived at port in Venezuela.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil used to finance narcoterrorism in the region,” Noem said in the post. “We will find you and stop you.”

This is the second sanctioned ship seized by the United States. On December 10, an elite U.S. Coast Guard tactical operations team, supported by U.S. Navy helicopters, boarded and seized The Skipper, a tanker sanctioned for being part of an illicit oil operation involving Venezuela.

Reuters was the first to report that the Coast Guard was seizing a second sanctioned vessel.

President Donald Trump threatened this week to impose a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, increasing American pressure on the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Navy ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his social media platform. “It will only get bigger, and the impact they will receive will be like nothing they have seen before.”

Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change. “This simply will not happen, never, never, never. Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, ever,” he said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.