Several ships left the Venezuelan coast after Maduro’s capture, including the Veronica III
United States military forces boarded the oil tanker Veronica III in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea, in an operation aimed at curbing the transport of sanctioned oil linked to Venezuela, the Pentagon reported this Sunday (15).
Venezuela has depended for years on a parallel fleet of false flag ships to insert its oil into global supply chains, circumventing sanctions imposed by the US. In December, President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned oil tankers to pressure then-President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured in January during an American military operation.
Several ships left the Venezuelan coast after Maduro’s capture, including the Veronica III. In a publication on the X network, the Department of Defense reported that American troops boarded the tanker in a “right of visit, maritime interdiction and boarding” operation. According to the Pentagon, the vessel “attempted to defy President Trump’s quarantine” but was tracked “from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean” and intercepted.
The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged ship subject to US sanctions related to Iran, according to the US Treasury Department. Monitoring platform TankerTrackers.com reported that the tanker left Venezuela on January 3, the same day as Maduro’s capture, carrying almost 2 million barrels of crude oil and fuel oil. The organization states that, since 2023, the ship has been moving cargo linked to Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
The Pentagon has not said whether the Veronica III has been formally seized and placed under U.S. control. Last week, the American military had already boarded another sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II, which remains detained while the government decides its fate.
*Estadão Content
