U.S. intercepts another tanker in the Indian Ocean for violating its crude oil blockade in the Caribbean

Washington.- The Department of War of the United States announced this Sunday that it intercepted in the Indian Ocean another tanker that, according to Washington, violated the blockade imposed on the oil operations in the Caribbean related to Venezuela and Cuba and tried to escape the US encirclement.

“During the night, the U.S. forces carried out a visit of inspection, maritime interdiction, and boarding of the Veronica III without incident in the Indopacom (Indo-Pacific Command) area of responsibility,” revealed the Pentagon in a message on X accompanied by a video of the operation.

According to the U.S. Armed Forces, “the ship attempted to defy the quarantine ordered by (U.S. President Donald) Trump, hoping to sneak away.” “We followed him from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we shortened the distance and neutralized him. No other nation has the reach, the endurance, or the will to do something like this. International waters are not a sanctuary. By land, sea, or air, we will find you and bring you to justice,” adds the writing.

The Veronica III, identified as a Panamanian-flagged vessel by the tracking site Marine Traffic, is one of around 16 sanctioned tankers that allegedly tried to evade the U.S. blockade, according to The New York Times, including the Aquila II, intercepted by Washington on February 9th, also in the Indian Ocean. According to the Times, which published the information at the beginning of January, in an attempt to evade the American reach, the Veronica III had assumed the name ‘DS Vector’ and falsified its coordinates to pretend it was located off the coast of Nigeria. Since December 2025, the United States has been applying a maritime “quarantine” on sanctioned tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, within the so-called Operation Lanza del Sur, in which at least eight ships have already been boarded or seized. These limitations include crude oil shipments to Cuba.

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Trump also ordered tariffs on countries that send oil to the Caribbean nation, a pressure mechanism that is strangling the island. The stated goal is to prevent Venezuelan oil from being sold outside of channels authorized by Washington and to cut off revenue to networks considered allies of Russia, Iran, or Cuba itself. “The War Department will deny illicit actors and their front men freedom of movement in the maritime domain,” the U.S. Armed Forces insisted in their message today.