CARACAS, Venezuela — The United States Coast Guard is pursuing a sanctioned vessel in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, according to two United States officials with knowledge of the operation, amid escalating maritime enforcement actions targeting oil shipments linked to the Venezuelan government.
One of the officials said the Coast Guard was on Monday, December 22, 2025, “is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion”, adding that the ship was “flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order”.
The vessel, identified as Bella 1, was placed on the United States sanctions list in June 2024, according to a person familiar with the designation.
The ship was sanctioned under counterterrorism authorities for its role in a network connected to Sa’id al-Jamal, a financial facilitator for the Houthi movement, the person said.
The same source noted that so-called shadow fleet vessels typically operate across multiple jurisdictions rather than on behalf of a single country.
Recent Interdictions in the Caribbean
If intercepted, Bella 1 would be the third vessel seized by the United States in the Caribbean in recent weeks.
On Saturday, the Department of Defense interdicted a second tanker that the White House said was carrying sanctioned oil. Earlier this month, another sanctioned vessel, the Skipper, was seized off Venezuela.
The interdictions have drawn sharp criticism from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), a regional political and economic bloc that includes Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and Saint Lucia.
In a statement issued on Sunday, December 21, 2025, the group condemned what it described as the “theft and seizure” of the tanker transporting Venezuelan oil, saying the action had “unlawfully deprived its crew of their liberty”.
“ALBA denounces that this act exposes a deliberate intention to plunder the natural resources of a sovereign country and sets an extremely serious precedent for the region and for the international system as a whole,” the statement said.
The alliance characterised the interdiction as an “act of piracy” and an “inadmissible act of aggression” in violation of international law, and called for an end to such actions.
Trump Leaves War Option Open
The pursuit of the vessel comes against a backdrop of rising tension between Washington and Caracas.
The Trump administration has carried out strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific, as part of what it says is an effort to disrupt trafficking and sanctions evasion.
President Donald Trump said last week that he was not ruling out the possibility of war with Venezuela. “I don’t rule it out, no,” he told NBC News in a telephone interview.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump ordered what he described as a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, a move that further tightened pressure on President Nicolás Maduro.
The United States has also recently seized an oil tanker captured near Venezuelan waters.
In the same interview, Mr Trump declined to discuss whether the maritime actions could lead to war, saying, “I don’t discuss it.”
When pressed, he confirmed it was a possibility and said further tanker seizures were planned.
“It depends,” he said. “If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbours.”
Asked whether removing Mr Maduro from power was his ultimate objective, Mr Trump replied, “He knows exactly what I want. He knows better than anybody.”
The administration has said the strikes and interdictions target alleged drug trafficking vessels and that Venezuelan oil revenues are being used to finance what it describes as “drug terrorism.”
