The Justice Department has released dramatic video showing U.S. military forces boarding and seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker accused of operating within an illicit shipping network designed to evade international sanctions. The operation, carried out in international waters, targeted a vessel allegedly used to transport oil in violation of U.S. sanctions placed on Venezuela’s state-linked energy sector.
According to federal officials, the tanker was part of a broader scheme involving front companies, falsified shipping records, and covert transfers meant to disguise the origin of Venezuelan crude. The footage shows U.S. forces approaching by helicopter and fast boats before securing the ship in what the attorney general described as a “high-risk but necessary action” to disrupt illegal oil trafficking.
The tanker has been transferred to U.S. custody as part of an ongoing investigation. Authorities say the seizure is part of a wider effort to dismantle networks that help sanctioned governments move restricted resources through hidden global routes.