{"id":499311,"date":"2026-01-07T16:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/499311\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:44:12","slug":"us-seizes-russian-flagged-oil-tanker-linked-to-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/499311\/","title":{"rendered":"US seizes Russian-flagged oil tanker linked to Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The US has seized an oil tanker linked to Venezuela after tracking it across the Atlantic, according to a social media post<\/a> from US European Command.\n <\/p>\n

\n Originally called the Bella 1, the tanker<\/a> was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for operating within a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of tankers transporting illicit oil.\n <\/p>\n

\n News of the seizure was first reported Wednesday by Reuters<\/a>, which quoted two sources as saying the operation was being carried out by the Coast Guard and US military.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Russian military had started to move around naval assets and a Russian submarine to protect the Bella 1 leading up to the US seizure of the tanker, according to a US official. But it\u2019s unclear how close those vessels were to the tanker when it was seized on Wednesday, the source said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The tanker was seized by the US is roughly 190 miles off the southern coast of Iceland in the northern Atlantic Ocean, according to ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.\n <\/p>\n

\n The site shows the tanker taking a sharp turn south around the time that reports emerged of its seizure.\n <\/p>\n

\n \ufeffThe US separately seized another vessel in the Caribbean on Wednesday, the US Southern Command announced on X<\/a>. Southern Command said the vessel is considered to be stateless and alleged that it was \u201cconducting illicit activities.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem celebrated the two seizures in a social media post,\ufeff saying, \u201cThe world\u2019s criminals are on notice. You can run, but you can\u2019t hide. We will never relent in our mission to protect the American people and disrupt the funding of narco terrorism wherever we find it, period.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The US Coast Guard had tried to seize the Bella 1 tanker last month when it was near Venezuela, but US forces did not board it after the ship turned around and fled.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US continued to pursue the vessel as it headed northeast, and US P-8 surveillance aircraft were deployed out of RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England, to surveil the tanker for days ahead of its seizure as it made its way north and past the UK coast, according to open-source flight data.\n <\/p>\n

\n Noem also said in the social media post that the US Coast Guard Cutter Munro had been following the ship \u201cacross the high seas and through treacherous storms\u2014 keeping diligent watch, and protecting our country with the determination and patriotism that make Americans proud.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n At some point while being pursued, the crew of the tanker painted a Russian flag on its hull, claiming it was sailing under Russian protection.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shortly thereafter, the vessel appeared on Russia\u2019s official register of ships under a new name \u2014 the Marinera. Russia filed a formal diplomatic request<\/a> last month demanding that the US stop pursuing the vessel.\n <\/p>\n

\n By claiming Russian status, the legalities of seizing the tanker became more complicated, but two sources familiar with the matter said the Trump administration hasn\u2019t recognized that status and considers the vessel to be stateless.\n <\/p>\n

\n At a briefing with key lawmakers Monday, Rubio said the US believed Russia could not just claim the tanker, according to a source familiar with the briefing. Rubio discussed the matter only briefly and he did not make clear if the message was conveyed directly to the Russian government.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US repositioned<\/a> military assets to the UK ahead of seizing the tanker, CNN has reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n At least 12 US C-17s landed at Fairford and Lakenheath airbases between January 3 and 5, many originating from airfields in the US.\n <\/p>\n

\n V-22 Ospreys were also active in the UK over the past several days, with flight data appearing to show them running training missions in the eastern UK out of Fairford air base. And two AC-130 gunships were seen arriving at Mildenhall base in the UK on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The UK provided support to the US, according to the British defense ministry.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUK Armed Forces provided pre-planned operational support, including basing, to US military assets interdicting the Bella 1 in the UK-Iceland-Greenland gap following a US request for assistance,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n The UK\u2019s RFA Tideforce tanker provided support for US forces \u201cpursuing and interdicting\u201d the vessel, while its air force \u201cprovided surveillance support from the air,\u201d it continued.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US last used Special Operations Forces and assets to help interdict a sanctioned tanker on December 11, when it supported a US Coast Guard operation near the coast of Venezuela to seize the Skipper, a very large crude carrier that was falsely flying Guyana\u2019s flag.\n <\/p>\n

\n President Donald Trump last month announced a \u201ccomplete blockade\u201d on sanctioned oil tankers attempting to enter or leave Venezuela, as a way to pressure the regime of then-Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US captured Maduro<\/a> from a compound in Caracas early Saturday morning, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the US will continue to enforce the blockade as \u201cleverage\u201d over the interim Venezuelan government.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Kaanita Iyer, Nick Paton Walsh Catherine Nicholls and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n

\n The headline and story have been updated with additional developments.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US has seized an oil tanker linked to Venezuela after tracking it across the Atlantic, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":499312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-499311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115854826764255574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}