The Panamanian-flagged Veronica III left Venezuela on the same day the United States detained President Nicolás Maduro in January.
Published February 16, 2026
U.S. troops boarded another tanker authorized to carry Venezuelan crude oil in the Indian Ocean, the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon said in a post on Sunday’s X that the Panamanian-flagged Veronica III “resisted” US President Donald Trump’s blockade of sanctioned ships in the Caribbean and attempted to “escape.”
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However, it said it had “tracked it from the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean, closed its distance, and closed it down.”
The post also included a video of U.S. troops boarding a helicopter and boarding a tanker ship.
Venezuela has faced U.S. oil sanctions for years, relying on a shadow fleet of false-flagged tankers to smuggle crude oil into global supply chains. President Trump ordered the quarantine of a sanctioned tanker in December to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro before U.S. special forces abducted the Venezuelan leader in January.
Several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast following the attack, including one that had been aboard overnight in the Indian Ocean.
Last week, the Pentagon intercepted Aquila II in a similar manner.
At least nine ships have been seized so far.
These seizures are part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to take control of Venezuela’s oil.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC News on Thursday that US government-controlled oil sales from Venezuela have generated more than $1 billion since Maduro’s capture. He said sales in the coming months would bring in an additional $5 billion in profits.
According to TankerTrackers.com, the Veronica III left Venezuela with nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil and fuel oil on January 3, the same day Maduro was abducted.
“Since 2023, she has been involved in Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil,” the group said.
The ship is subject to U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website.
The Panama Maritime Authority announced in a brief statement Sunday that the ship is no longer registered in the country and has been canceled for December 2024.
In its post, the Pentagon did not say whether Veronica III had been formally captured and placed in U.S. custody. The company told The Associated Press in an email that it had no additional information to provide beyond that post.
The ships seized in recent months represent only a fraction of the total number of sanctioned “shadow fleet” vessels operating around the world.
AFP news agency, citing a senior US Coast Guard official, said the number could be as high as 800.
On Saturday, the U.S. military also attacked a boat in the Caribbean that continued its deadly airstrikes on ships suspected of carrying drugs, killing three people. At least 133 people have been killed in the airstrikes since September 2025.
