US forces boarded and seized the Panamanian‑flagged VLCC Veronica III in the Indian Ocean after tracking the tanker from the Caribbean, the Pentagon said yesterday, in the latest sign that Washington is willing to take extraordinary measures to enforce its blockade of sanctioned oil flows linked to Venezuela and other state actors.
The Pentagon said US units closed the distance and “shut it down” after the Veronica III tried to “defy President Trump’s quarantine – hoping to slip away.” A social media post from the Department of Defense emphasised the global reach of the operation: “International waters are not sanctuary. By land, air, or sea, we will find you and deliver justice.”
TankerTrackers.com identified the ship as departing Venezuela on January 3 – the same day US forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro – and said the vessel was carrying roughly 1.9m barrels of crude and fuel oil. In a post accompanying imagery, the monitor noted Veronica III’s history of involvement in Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil trades and suggested only one of the original break‑through tankers remained at large after recent interdictions.
The seizure follows a string of high‑profile interdictions since December as Washington reshapes Venezuelan crude export flows.
We defend the Homeland forward. Distance does not protect you.
Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Veronica III without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.
The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/Tran3cLR9g
