Venezuela accuses US of ‘piracy’ after oil tanker seized off coast
December 11, 2025 in News, Video by RBN Staff
US forces seizing Venezuelan oil tanker today
by u/Few_Meeting_2655 in law
Source: BBC.com
Summary
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The US says it has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela
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“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large one… the largest one ever seized actually”, US President Donald Trump told reporters at a White House event
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US Attorney General Pam Bondi says the tanker has been sanctioned for many years due to its “involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations”
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She posted a clip on social media which appears to show US troops boarding the vessel via helicopter
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Venezuela’s government has responded by accusing the US of “theft” and “international piracy”, and has previously said it believes the US is actually trying to depose its President Nicolás Maduro
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Washington has been building its military presence around the region in recent weeks, in an operation it says is to combat drug trafficking
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A seized tanker and a possible escalation between the US and Venezuelapublished at 19:38 10 December
Sakshi Venkatraman
Live reporter
IMAGE SOURCE,US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICEUS armed forces seized a large oil tanker ship off the coast of Venezuela today, exacerbating already tense relations between the two countries that have worsened over the last few months.
American officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi allege that the vessel had been involved in “an illicit oil shipping network” supporting foreign terrorist organisations, transporting oil between Venezuela and Iran.
But Venezuelan officials call the seizure an “act of international piracy”.
In a statement, the Venezuelan government alleges that the “policy of aggression” against Venezuela is part of a “deliberate plan to plunder our energy resources”.
Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello called the US “murderers, thieves, pirates”.
This comes as the US continues to bolster its military operations in the region, where it has been striking alleged drug trafficking boats in a mission called “Operation Southern Spear”. Trump says this is meant to stop narcotics from entering the country and killing Americans. Since September, the US has hit 23 vessels and killed 84 people.
Today’s seizure is seen by some as an escalation, and the BBC’s US partner CBS News reports Trump is considering more actions like it.
We’re ending our live coverage here, but you can check out this article for the full breakdown of what happened today: US seizes oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Trump says
FULL STORY from link above: US seizes oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Trump says
US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said, marking a sharp escalation in Washington’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.
“We have just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela – a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Releasing a video of the seizure, Attorney General Pam Bondi described the vessel as a “crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.
Caracas swiftly denounced the action, calling it an act of “international piracy”. Earlier, President Maduro declared that Venezuela would never become an “oil colony”.
The Trump administration accuses Venezuela of funnelling narcotics into the US and has intensified its efforts to isolate President Maduro in recent months.
Venezuela – home to some of the world’s largest proven oil reserves – has, in turn, accused Washington of seeking to steal its resources.
Brent crude prices inched higher on Wednesday as news of the seizure stoked short-term supply concerns. Analysts warn the move could threaten shippers and further disrupt Venezuela’s oil exports.
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US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who leads the US Department of Justice, said the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the US Coast Guard co-ordinated the seizure.
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” the nation’s top prosecutor wrote on X.
Footage shared by Bondi showed a military helicopter hovering over a large ship, and troops descending on to the deck using ropes. Uniformed men were seen in the clip moving about the ship with guns drawn.
A senior military official told the BBC’s US partner CBS that the helicopters used in the operation launched from the USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, which was sent to the Caribbean last month.
It involved two helicopters, 10 Coast Guard members and 10 Marines, as well as special forces.
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Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was aware of the operation, and the Trump administration was considering more actions like this, a source told CBS.
When asked by reporters what the US would do with the oil on the tanker, Trump said: “We keep it, I guess… I assume we’re going to keep the oil.”
Maritime risk company Vanguard Tech identified the vessel as the Skipper and said it believed the ship had been “spoofing” its position – or broadcasting a false location – for a long time.
BBC Verify has since confirmed that the vessel in the footage released by the Department of Homeland Security is the Skipper.
The US treasury department sanctioned the Skipper in 2022, CBS reported, for alleged involvement in oil smuggling that generated revenue for Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.
BBC Verify also located this tanker on MarineTraffic, which shows it was sailing under the flag of Guyana when its position was last updated two days ago.
A statement from Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department on Wednesday evening, however, said that the Skipper was “falsely flying the Guyana Flag as it is not registered in Guyana.”
The Skipper’s port of call log shows it called in Iran, Iraq, and the UAE from 30 June to 9 July this year. Its most recent stop, according to MarineTraffic, was at Soroosh port in Iran on 9 July.
That does not mean that it has not called at multiple other ports since then.
MarineTraffic shows it was last near Iran in mid-September before arriving off the coast of Guyana at the end of October and making minimal further movement since then. This data may be partial or incorrect because of spoofing.
MarineTraffic lists the beneficial owner and operator as Nigeria-based Thomarose Global Ventures Ltd and it lists the registered owner as Marshall Islands-based Triton Navigation Corp.
The Venezuelan government issued a statement denouncing the seizure as a “grave international crime”.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello called the US “murderers, thieves, pirates”.
He referred to Pirates of the Caribbean, but said that while that film’s lead character Jack Sparrow was a “hero”, he believed “these guys are high seas criminals, buccaneers”.
Cabello said this was how the US had “started wars all over the world”.
Speaking at a rally earlier on Wednesday, Maduro had a message for Americans opposed to war with Venezuela. It came in the form of a 1988 hit song.
“To American citizens who are against the war, I respond with a very famous song: Don’t worry, be happy,” Maduro said in Spanish before singing along to the lyrics of the 1988 hit.
“Not war, be happy. Not, not crazy war, not, be happy.”
It’s unclear if Maduro knew about the seizure of the tanker before this rally.
In recent days, the US has ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, which borders Venezuela to the north.
The build-up involves thousands of troops and the USS Gerald Ford being positioned within striking distance of Venezuela, BBC Verify reported.
The move has sparked speculation about the potential for some kind of military action.
Since September, the US has conducted at least 22 strikes on boats in the region that the Trump administration says are smuggling drugs. At least 80 people have died in these attacks.
