United States forces intercepted and boarded an oil tanker in mid-February 2026, the second time the U.S. has conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction in the Indian Ocean of a vessel fleeing the Caribbean.
In the latest interception, the tanker tried to defy a U.S. quarantine of sanctioned ships, the U.S. Department of War said. Forces tracked the ship from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean.
“No other nation has the reach, endurance or will to do this. International waters are not sanctuary. By land, air, or sea, we will find you and deliver justice,” the department said.
U.S. forces also intercepted and boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean earlier in February. It, too, violated the U.S. blockade of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.
The operations underscore the U.S. mission to disrupt illicit maritime activity linked to sanctioned states and actors.
“It ran, and we followed,” the department said after the first intercept. Forces “tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain. By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice. You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us.”
The tanker departed Venezuelan waters in early January after U.S. forces captured the nation’s president at his fortified compound in Caracas. Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were extradited to the U.S. on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and weapons possession.
The tanker was carrying about 700,000 barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude oil, the Reuters news service reported. Operating under a false name to obscure its identity as part of a dark oil fleet, the ship was involved in exporting sanctioned oil and petroleum products from ports in the Baltic and Black seas and the Indo-Pacific, often using deceptive shipping practices, according to Ukraine’s Kyiv Post newspaper.
The U.S. sanctioned the ship and its owner, Sunne Co. Ltd., in January 2025 for operating in Russia’s energy sector. Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom also have imposed sanctions on the vessel since September 2025. The interdiction came three days after a U.S. presidential executive order expanding trade and defense relations with India, including New Delhi’s pledge to stop importing Russian oil. The U.S. has said such oil purchases help Russia finance its war with Ukraine.
“Specifically, India has committed to stop directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil, has represented that it will purchase United States energy products from the United States, and has recently committed to a framework with the United States to expand defense cooperation over the next 10 years,” the order stated.
The U.S. has intercepted seven other Venezuela-linked tankers since December 2025 — six in the Caribbean and one in the North Atlantic — and said it continues to monitor the area, enforce the blockade and interdict sanctioned vessels.
The Department of War said it “will deny illicit actors and their proxies freedom of movement in the maritime domain.”
France, meanwhile, seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea in late January 2026. The ship, suspected of being part of a dark fleet, was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag,” French President Emmanuel Macron said. The tanker, named Grinch, was escorted to Marseille, France, before being released.
France, Germany, the U.K. and 11 other countries bordering the Baltic and North seas issued a January 2026 joint statement saying all vessels sailing through the regions should “strictly comply with applicable international law.” The announcement followed multiple instances of
Russian ships turning off their navigation systems, a common technique to disguise vessel identities and locations.
Authorities documented 23 dark fleet ships using false or fraudulent flags in or near the Baltic Sea in January 2026, The Guardian newspaper reported. Many were linked to sanctioned oil exports.
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