France's AFP news agency reported?that US forces seized the tanker after releasing a social media post announcing that the Aquila II had been "boarded without incident."

The Department of Defense?released a video on X to accompany the announcement.

"The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President [Donald] Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean," the post read, continuing, "It ran, and we followed."

The US sanctions on the Aquila II are tied to its transport of Russian oil. The Hong Kong-owned vessel was one of at least 16 ships to depart Venezuela last month in the wake of the US capture and extradition of former-President Nicolas Maduro on January 3.

Tracking data shows that the Aquila II spent most of its time on the high seas over the past year "running dark," with its transponder turned off to avoid detection.

Countries such as Venezuela, Iran and Russia all employ so-called "shadow fleets" of falsely flagged tankers running dark in order to avoid sanctions detection as they transport illicit oil from one nation to another.

The US under Donald Trump has deployed a massive naval force to the Caribbean; destroying small boats it claims are transporting drugs, seizing oil tankers and even launching the raid that saw Maduro and his wife extracted from a Venezuelan military compound in the dead of night.

The Aquila II is the eighth ship seized by the US since Trump announced his "blockade," and the second to lead US forces out of the region in pursuit.

In January, US forces nabbed a Russia-linked oil tanker in the North Atlantic after it fled the Venezuelan coast.

Still despite these successes, the number of ships seized is miniscule compared to the 800 or so shadow vessels the US Coast Guard estimates currently operate?worldwide.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington must have full control Venezuelan oil production, refining and distribution.

As part of Washington's flex in its own hemisphere — and beyond his interdiction in Venezuela and threats to Colombia?— Trump has also been keen to isolate Cuba.

The Caribbean island nation is under strict US sanctions and heavily dependent on oil from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico for its survival.

Trump and his advisors are convinced that Cuba's communist government is ready to fall at any time. Though, admittedly, his is not the first US administration over the past 60 plus years to believe that.

Trump has sought to further increase pressure on Cuba?by threatening tariffs on any goods from countries supplying Cuba with oil, a move that would very directly impact Mexico.

Later on Monday, the US military said it launched ⁠an airstrike on a vessel in the eastern ⁠Pacific.?

Two people were killed and one survived the strike, the US Southern Command said in a post on X, adding that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations."

It said it had notified the US Coast Guard to search for the survivor.?

President Donald Trump's ‌administration ⁠has touted its success in recent weeks at taking ‍out suspected drug trafficking vessels.

Since September 2025, US forces have repeatedly targeted fast boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that they say are smuggling drugs, though they haven't provided definitive evidence that this is the case.

Critics question the legality of such lethal strikes in international waters.

Around 130 people have been killed in dozens of attacks, news agencies report.?

Edited by: Wesley Dockery and Karl Sexton