Washington — American forces plan to intercept an evading oil tanker that has historically carried Venezuelan crude oil and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.
Since last month, U.S. forces have pursued the Marinera, a crude oil tanker formerly known as the Bella 1, as the U.S. continues its pressure campaign against Venezuela. Since September, the United States has steadily turned the screws, accusing former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government of using multiple vessels to move drugs north toward American shores.
Two U.S. intelligence officials also said Venezuelan officials had discussed placing armed military personnel on tankers — disguising them as civilians for defense purposes — as well as portable Soviet-era air defense systems. The discussions took place before the capture of Maduro and his wife by U.S. special forces on Friday and into the early hours of Saturday morning, the officials told CBS News.
The two officials familiar with the Marinera seizure plans said the U.S. would rather seize the ship than sink it and said the operation could be similar to the one conducted last month when U.S. Marines and special operation forces working with the U.S. Coast Guard seized The Skipper, a large crude oil tanker flagged out of Guyana, after the vessel had left port in Venezuela.
The Coast Guard tried to board the tanker last month, after the Justice Department obtained a seizure warrant based on the ship’s prior involvement in the Iranian oil trade, a U.S. official previously said.
Maduro has rejected the U.S. allegations about how the vessels are being used and instead accuses the United States of plundering Venezuelan resources under the cover of law enforcement. The latest confrontation is one in a series of U.S. actions that include charging Maduro and his wife with narco-terrorism. American strikes on multiple vessels have killed more than 100 people in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
The Marinera was a ship previously flagged out of Panama and was sanctioned for its prior involvement in Iranian oil trading by the Treasury Department in 2024 under former President Joe Biden, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. But now the ship is sailing under the Russian flag, which potentially could complicate sensitive talks between the United States and Russia over ending the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping lists the tanker as being ported out of Sochi, off the western coast of the Black Sea. The New York Times reported that the Russian government officially asked the U.S. to stop all attempts to interdict the ship.
Contacted by CBS News on Monday, no reply was returned from the White House, Pentagon or State Department. The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., also did not respond to requests for comment.
The two U.S. officials with knowledge of U.S. military operational planning said the interdiction mission could come as early as this week but like any Defense Department plans, the operation could ultimately be shelved. The officials spoke under condition of anonymity to discuss national security matters.
Like the Marinera, The Skipper was also sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2022 for its alleged role in an oil smuggling network that helped fund the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran.
Ships like the Marinera, The Skipper and the Centuries, another oil tanker the United States seized last month, are all a part of a so-called shadow fleet of ships that illegally transport oil from sanctioned nations like Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
President Trump unilaterally imposed a “total and complete blockade” on already sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers on Dec. 16.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
On Monday, The New York Times reported that at least 16 oil tankers have attempted to evade the U.S. naval blockade by disguising their geographical locations or turning off their transmission beacons.
If the Marinera is captured by American forces, it would be the third oil tanker seized by the United States since it began its campaign against Venezuela in early September.
