US boards third Venezuela-linked oil tanker in Indian Ocean

Courtney McBride and Weilun Soon, Bloomberg News on Feb 24, 2026

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The U.S. military has boarded another sanctioned tanker with links to Venezuela after chasing it into the Indian Ocean, as the Trump administration continues to enforce a maritime blockade against the Latin American nation.

The latest operation marks the third vessel halted in the region by U.S. forces and the tenth overall since December, following similar moves in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. It’s part of Washington’s policy to maintain pressure on Venezuela’s new government after it captured ex-president Nicolás Maduro last month.

“Three boats ran and now all three have been captured,” the Defense Department said in a social media post that featured footage of U.S. military helicopters hovering over a tanker. “From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it.”

All three vessels boarded in the Indian Ocean had been sailing under false or unknown flags, according to maritime database Equasis, and were blacklisted by the Treasury Department for allegedly being engaged in the Iranian and Russian oil trades.

Though the U.S. has targeted tankers with Venezuelan links so far, there could be wider implications for the global trade of sanctioned crude, said Karnan Thirupathy, partner at Kennedys Law LLP and a sanctions expert.

“The focus on tankers sailing under false flags should be cause for concern for the wider community trading sanctioned barrels elsewhere. The geography of such operations is expanding,” he said.

The most recent tanker boarded by U.S. forces was Bertha, according to the Pentagon. A 2004-built very-large crude carrier, it was sanctioned in 2024 for facilitating Iranian oil exports. It was nearly full when halted about 1,700 miles south of Sri Lanka, having loaded 1.9 million barrels of Merey crude from Venezuela in early December, according to ship-tracking platforms Kpler and Vortexa. It was loaded about a week before the U.S. first seized a vessel off the South American country.

Equasis lists Bertha’s manager as Shanghai Legendary Ship Management, a company that’s been sanctioned by the Treasury Department. There were no contact details available for the company, which is registered in China’s Liaoning province. Its owner, Centaurus Min Ltd., shares the same address as Shanghai Legendary, and also had no contact details.

In early February, the U.S. military intercepted and boarded the Aquila II in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The 2004-built Suezmax, which had left Venezuela in December, was blacklisted in 2025 as the White House sought to increase the pressure on Russia’s crude trade.

U.S. forces then boarded a second vessel, the 2006-built VLCC Veronica III, in the same waters the following week. That tanker was targeted by the Treasury Department in the same sanctions package that swept up Bertha.

A Pentagon spokesperson declined to offer additional details on the latest operation, referring further questions to the White House.