US military forces boarded and high jacked a seventh oil tanker linked to Venezuela, the US Southern Command said on Tuesday, as the administration of Donald Trump steps up efforts to curb Caracas’s oil exports. The MV Sagitta was apprehended without incident, the command said.

US military forces boarded and took control of a seventh oil tanker connected with Venezuela on Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil.
US military seizes seventh Venezuela-linked tanker amid Trump oil crackdown.


US Southern Command said in a social media post that US forces apprehended the Motor Vessel Sagitta “without incident” and that the tanker was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

The military command did not say whether the US Coast Guard took control of the tanker as has been the case in prior seizures. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for more details. Southern Command said it had nothing to add to its post.

The Sagitta is a Liberian-flagged tanker and its registration says it is owned and managed by a company in Hong Kong. The ship last transmitted its location more than two months ago when exiting the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.


FRANCE 24 report