Illustrative image. (U.S. Navy)
President Donald Trump announced on December 10 that the United States had seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” said Trump.
When asked by reporters at the White House what would happen with the oil loaded in the tanker, Trump answered: “We keep it, I guess.”
In a post on X, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the FBI, Homeland Security and Coast Guard, along with support from the U.S. military, carried out a seizure warrant for a crude tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
The seizure of the tanker marked a new escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuela which began back in October, and later evolved into a military operation targeting alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean with the undeclared aim of ousting President Nicols Maduro.
The U.S. previously imposed sanctions on the tanker, identified as Skipper, for what it said was involvement in Iranian oil trading when the vessel was called the Adisa.
The Skipper left Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose between December 4 and 5 after loading some 1.8 million barrels of Venezuela’s Merey heavy crude.
It then transferred about 200,000 barrels near Curacao to the Panama-flagged Neptune 6 bound for Cuba before the seizure, Reuters reported, citing satellite information analyzed by TankerTrackers.com and internal data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
The Venezuelan government in a statement accused the U.S. of “blatant theft” and described the seizure as “an act of international piracy”.
Separately on December 10, a photo released by Reuters revealed that the U.S. Navy has deployed at least six EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft at José Aponte de la Torre Airport in Puerto Rico.
The deployment, a part of a wider military buildup in the Caribbean that began in October, indicates that the U.S. is about to attack Venezuela. The country maintains a dense network of advanced air defenses, and EA-18G aircraft are usually deployed to suppress such networks.
📍José Aponte de la Torre Airport, #UnitedStates (🇺🇸)
We now have visual confirmation of the arrival of the 6x @USNavy EA-18 Growlers in Ceiba.
They join the @USMC F-35B Lightning IIs at the base, and their sisters currently deployed upon the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78). https://t.co/PdlkHKLiCA pic.twitter.com/iUQkDGYlq0
— SA Defensa (@SA_Defensa) December 10, 2025
Trump warned in an interview with Politico released on December 9 that Maduro’s “days are numbered” and refused to rule out sending U.S. ground troops to depose him. A report released later by CNN revealed that the U.S. has been quietly working on day-after plans in the event Maduro is ousted from power.
In recent weeks, the diplomatic engagement between the U.S. and Venezuela saw an uptake, with Trump even phoning Maduro. Still, an agreement seems unlikely.
The Trump administration apparently believes that ousting Maduro is essential to gain access to the country’s oil reserves, believed to be the largest in the world. However, any military intervention will bring serious risks to the U.S. and could even end up backfiring.
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usually drug master minds get long jail sentences even when it’s common knowledge the business kills ruthlessly. it’s a great shame that the people who run it globally nationally and state, aren’t held accountable. they never are. that’s the evidence that reveals their identity.