Kayla Epsteinand
Ion Wells,Sao Paulo
President Donald Trump said the U.S. military had seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign on Nicolas Maduro’s government.
“We just captured an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “This tanker is very large and in fact the largest ever seized,” he said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi released video of the seizure, describing the vessel as a “crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
Caracas immediately condemned the act, calling it “international piracy.” Previously, President Maduro declared that Venezuela would never become an ‘oil colony.’
The Trump administration has stepped up efforts to isolate Maduro in recent months, accusing Venezuela of bringing drugs into the United States.
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, has accused the United States of trying to steal its resources.
Brent crude prices rose slightly on Wednesday as news of seizures raised concerns about near-term supplies. Analysts warn the move could threaten shippers and further hamper Venezuela’s oil exports.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who leads the U.S. Department of Justice, said the seizure was coordinated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard.
“The tanker has been sanctioned by the United States for several years because of its involvement in an illicit oil transportation network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” the country’s top prosecutor wrote to X.
Footage shared by Bondi shows a military helicopter hovering over a large ship and troops lowering it to the deck using ropes. The video showed uniformed men moving around the boat with guns drawn.
A senior military official told the BBC’s US partner CBS that the helicopter used in the operation was launched from the USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, which was dispatched to the Caribbean last month.
It involved two helicopters, 10 Coast Guardsmen, 10 Marines and special forces.
A source told CBS that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was aware of the operation and that the Trump administration was considering further action.
Asked by reporters what the United States would do with the oil on the tanker, Trump said, “I think we’ll have it… I assume we’ll keep it.”
Marine risk company Vanguard Tech identified the vessel as the captain and said it believed the vessel had been “spoofing” its position or had been broadcasting a false location for a long time.
BBC Verification later confirmed that the captain was the ship in the video released by the Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the captain in 2022 for his alleged involvement in oil smuggling that generated revenue for Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, according to CBS.
BBC Verification also located the tanker on MarineTraffic, which shows it was sailing under the Guyanese flag when its location was last updated two days ago.
But on Wednesday evening, the Guyana Maritime Authority said in a statement that the captain “was falsely flying the Guyanese flag because he was not registered in Guyana.”
The captain’s phone records show he made calls to Iran, Iraq and the UAE between June 30 and July 9 of this year. The most recent stop was at the Iranian port of Soroosh on July 9, according to MarineTraffic.
That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been called on several other ports since then.
The ship arrived off the coast of Guyana in late October after last approaching Iran in mid-September and has seen minimal movement since then, according to MarineTraffic. This data may be partial or inaccurate due to spoofing.
MarineTraffic lists the beneficial owner and operator as Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd and the registered owner as Marshall Islands-based Triton Navigation Corp.
The Venezuelan government issued a statement condemning the seizure as a “grave international crime.”
Interior Secretary Diosdado Cabello called the United States “murderers, thieves and pirates.”
He referenced Pirates of the Caribbean but said that while that film’s protagonist Jack Sparrow was a “hero”, he believed “these guys were high seas criminals and pirates.”
Cabello said this is how the United States “started wars around the world.”
Maduro delivered a message to Americans who oppose the war with Venezuela at a rally Wednesday morning. It came out in the form of a hit song in 1988.
“I respond to American citizens who oppose the war with a very famous song: Don’t worry, be happy,” Maduro said in Spanish, before singing along to the lyrics of the 1988 hit song.
“Be happy, not war. Be happy, not crazy war.”
It is unclear whether Maduro was aware of the seizure of the oil tanker before this rally.
Recently, the United States has strengthened its military presence in the Caribbean, bordering Venezuela to the north.
The troop build-up includes thousands of troops and the USS Gerald Ford within striking distance of Venezuela, according to a BBC verification.
The move sparked speculation about the possibility of some kind of military action.
Since September, the United States has carried out at least 22 attacks on boats in the region that the Trump administration said were smuggling drugs. At least 80 people were killed in this attack.
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