US military forces have boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday, marking a major escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign to enforce an oil quarantine on Venezuela and seize vessels accused of evading sanctions.

Issued on: 10/02/2026 - 02:57

By: FRANCE 24 FILE - US military forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea. © Hakon Rimmereid, AFP US military forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea as part of an oil quarantine meant to squeeze Venezuela, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday.

Venezuela had faced US sanctions on its oil and relied on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains. Following the US raid to apprehend then-President Nicolás Maduro in early January, several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight.

Hegseth vowed to eventually capture all those ships, telling a group of shipyard workers in Maine on Monday that “the only guidance I gave to my military commanders is none of those are getting away”.

“I don’t care if we’ve got to go around the globe to get them; we’re going to get them,” he added.

Later on Monday, the US military said it had carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

US Southern Command said the strike killed two people, while one person survived. Southern Command said it had notified the US Coast Guard to activate its search and rescue system for the survivor. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.

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Monday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 130 people.

The Trump administration has seized seven tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of the South American country’s oil. Unlike those previous actions, the Aquila II has not been formally seized and placed under US control, a defence official said.

Instead, the ship is being held while its ultimate fate is decided by the US, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making.

The Aquila II is a Panamanian-flagged tanker under US sanctions related to the shipment of illicit Russian oil. Owned by a company with a listed address in Hong Kong, ship-tracking data show it has spent much of the past year with its radio transponder turned off, a practice known as “running dark” commonly employed by smugglers to hide their location.

It was one of at least 16 tankers that fled the Venezuelan coast last month, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, who said his organisation used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship’s movements. According to data transmitted from the ship on Monday, it is not currently laden with a cargo of crude oil.

The Pentagon’s post on X said the military “conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction” on the ship.

“The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” the Pentagon said. “It ran, and we followed.”

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A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, would not say what forces were used in the operation but confirmed the destroyers USS Pinckney and USS John Finn, as well as the mobile base ship USS Miguel Keith, were operating in the Indian Ocean.

In videos the Pentagon posted to social media, uniformed forces can be seen boarding a Navy helicopter that takes off from a ship matching the profile of the Miguel Keith. Video and photos of the tanker shot from inside a helicopter also show a Navy destroyer sailing alongside the ship.

Since the US ouster of Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid on January 3, the Trump administration has set out to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s petroleum products. Officials in President Donald Trump’s Republican administration have made it clear they see seizing the tankers as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump has also been trying to restrict the flow of oil to Cuba, which faces strict economic sanctions by the US and relies heavily on oil shipments from allies such as Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.

Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and that the Cuban government is ready to fall. Trump also recently signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, primarily pressuring Mexico because it has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba.

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