US forces board Russia-flagged oil tanker in Atlantic
U.S. forces have boarded a Venezuela-linked sanctioned oil tanker in the North Atlantic after pursuing it for weeks, a U.S. official said.
The official spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. The official said the U.S. military seized the vessel and handed over control to law enforcement officials.
The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.
The ship was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese Hezbollah.
The U.S. Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela. The ship refused boarding and headed across the Atlantic.
The ship, once known as the Bella 1, was renamed Marinera and flagged to Russia, shipping databases show.
U.S. officials say the tanker is part of a so-called shadow fleet that has carried oil for countries such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Earlier Wednesday, open-source maritime tracking sites showed its position as between Scotland and Iceland, traveling north. The U.S. official also confirmed the ship was in the North Atlantic.
U.S. military planes have flown over the vessel, and on Tuesday a Royal Air Force surveillance plane was shown on flight-tracking sites flying over the same are.
The tanker's seizure comes just days after U.S. military forces conducted a surprise nighttime raid on Venezuela’s capital of Caracas and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
In the wake of this raid, Trump administration officials have said that they intended to continue to seize sanctioned vessels connected to the country.
07 January 2026, 18:56
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"Forces" suggests there is some degree of control over these persons, some plan to their activity. "Go out and blow something up" is not a plan.
07 January 2026, 20:33
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Now that I've calmed down a bit, it occurs to me that this is all being done at Russia's request (Trump would never have the nerve to do it on his own) so that they can quash speculation that Trump is working for them, which he is obviously doing by offering to let them keep what they took of Ukraine. Catherine Belton's Putin's People (2020) speculated that they already had influence over him, but she seemed to go out of her way to state that there was no hard evidence of it so it could not be stated as a fact.
07 January 2026, 20:35
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from: A Review of Putin's People 16 June, 2020 ". . . While Belton avoids concluding that Trump conspired with Russian security officials, she nonetheless outlines his reliance on unaccountable Russian money, and lack of principles in working with criminals. According to Belton, Trump was surrounded by Russian organized crime associates since the late 1980s. His commercial real estate interests and casinos provided money laundering options for Russian money, and helped save him from bankruptcy. Unlike US banking laws, real estate was exempt from the requirement to report suspicious activity. Lack of principles and easy money provided ample opportunities for corruption and compromise."
07 January 2026, 20:48
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As to why he invaded Venezuela, I don't think Russia cares much, given what I said above. However it did have the effect of making Israel look sane. So if Israel works up the nerve to attack Iran again, etc., Netanyahu can claim to his remaining supporters that "Trump did it, so I can do it." The invasion of Venezuela was thus the result of Netanyahu's use of Epstein materials (he must have stuff that the US DOJ never imagined, much less the NYT) to "control" Trump. I won't taunt Netanyahu by saying he's had four days to work up the nerve to blow something up somewhere, other than a hilltop in Lebanon or a mound of dirt in Gaza.
07 January 2026, 20:49
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And more generally, everything Trump does, from A to Z, is an attempt to distract attention from the Epstein affair. Or affairs.
