The U.S. Coast Guard seized a second Venezuela-linked oil tanker early Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in a post on X, as the administration continues to pressure the South American country over drug trafficking.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem wrote. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”
The seizure marks the second oil tanker with ties to Venezuela the U.S. has nabbed in recent days. Just over a week ago, U.S. officials apprehended a major oil tanker bound for Cuba off the coast of Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi later said the tanker had trafficked sanctioned oil from the South American petrostate and Iran.
The White House has amplified tensions against Venezuela in recent weeks, with President Donald Trump repeatedly refusing to rule out an American ground invasion and predicting ominously to POLITICO that longtime strongman Nicolas Maduro’s “days are numbered.”
On Tuesday, Trump ordered a blockade on Venezuela and announced that he was classifying the Maduro government as a foreign terrorist organization.
And U.S. military strikes on boats carrying alleged drug smugglers have drawn international scrutiny, with some Democrats going so far as to suggest one attack in particular could amount to war crimes.
But the White House seems undeterred by the criticism. As White House chief of staff Susie Wiles put it in an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.”
