FILE - The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)
FILE - The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)
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Flames rise from flare stacks at the Amuay refinery in Los Taques, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea as part of an oil quarantine meant to squeeze Venezuela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday.
Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil and relied on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to . Following the U.S. raid to apprehend in early January, several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight.
Hegseth vowed to eventually capture all those ships, telling a group of shipyard workers in Maine on Monday that “the only guidance I gave to my military commanders is none of those are getting away.â€
“I don’t care if we got to go around the globe to get them; we’re going to get them,†he added.
Later Monday, the U.S. military said it had carried out another accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Southern Command said the strike killed two people, while one person survived. Southern Command said it had notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate its search and rescue system for the survivor. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
Monday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 130 people.
The Trump administration has as part of its broader efforts of the South American country’s oil. Unlike those previous actions, the Aquila II has not been formally seized and placed under U.S. control, a defense official said.
Instead, the ship is being held while its ultimate fate is decided by the U.S., according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making.
The Aquila II is a Panamanian-flagged tanker under U.S. sanctions related to the shipment of illicit Russian oil. Owned by a company with a listed address in Hong Kong, ship tracking data shows it has spent much of the last year with its radio transponder turned off, a practice known as “running dark†commonly employed by .
It was one of at least 16 tankers that fled the Venezuelan coast last month, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of , who said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship’s movements. According to data transmitted from the ship Monday, it is not currently laden with a cargo of crude oil.
The Pentagon's post on X said the military “conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction†on the ship.
“The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,†the Pentagon said. “It ran, and we followed.â€
A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, would not say what forces were used in the operation but confirmed the destroyers USS Pinckney and USS John Finn as well as the mobile base ship USS Miguel Keith were operating in the Indian Ocean.
In videos the Pentagon posted to social media, uniformed forces can be seen boarding a Navy helicopter that takes off from a ship that matches the profile of the Miguel Keith. Video and photos of the tanker shot from inside a helicopter also show a Navy destroyer sailing alongside the ship.
Since the in a surprise nighttime raid on Jan. 3, the Trump administration has set out to , refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s petroleum products. Officials in President Donald Trump’s Republican administration have made it clear they see seizing the tankers as a as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump also has been trying to , which faces strict economic sanctions by the U.S. and relies heavily on oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.
Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said that no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and that the Cuban government is ready to fall. Trump also recently signed an on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, primarily pressuring Mexico because it has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba.
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Associated Press writer Patrick Whittle in Bath, Maine, contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show that the name of the destroyer is the USS John Finn, not the USS Johnson.
