The United States seized an oil tanker in the Caribbean overnight as the White House seeks to assert control over Venezuelan oil.
The oil tanker Olina was seized after the U.S. Coast Guard and Marines from Joint Task Force Southern Spear boarded and “apprehended” the vessel just before dawn on Friday, the U.S. military’s Southern Command confirmed in a statement.
The Olina was “another ‘ghost fleet’ tanker ship suspected of carrying embargoed oil,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Friday. “This vessel had departed Venezuela attempting to evade U.S. forces.”
The seizure of the Olina marks the fifth known capture of a vessel linked to Venezuela by U.S. forces in recent weeks.
It comes days after the military seized the Russian-flagged Bella 1 in the North Atlantic, a tanker it had been chasing for weeks over allegations that it was in violation of U.S. sanctions.
U.S. Southern Command announced the seizure of another oil tanker, the Sophia, in international waters near the Caribbean early Wednesday. The military said the Coast Guard was escorting the ship to the U.S.
The capture of the Olina comes as President Donald Trump is slated to meet with executives from more than a dozen oil companies at the White House on Friday afternoon to discuss plans for investment in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.
Trump on Tuesday said Venezuela would turn over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S. The announcement was followed by a plan from the administration to exert sweeping control over Venezuela’s crude oil exports.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. would control the sale of Venezuelan oil “indefinitely,” though plans to do so remain vague. Wright is expected to attend the White House meeting.
The Kremlin thanked Trump on Friday for authorizing the release of two Russian nationals who were aboard the Bella 1 at the time it was seized. The vessel, which changed its name from the Bella 1 to the Marinera and registered under a Russian flag last week, had been tracked by the U.S. Coast Guard since December.
“The ghost fleets will not outrun justice. They will not hide under false claims of nationality,” Noem said Friday. Her post on X included an unclassified video of the capture operation.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW.