Overview
- Attorney General Pam Bondi released video of the boarding and said the Justice Department, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Coast Guard and the Pentagon executed an order to seize the vessel used to move sanctioned oil.
- News reports, citing Ukrainian military information, identified the ship as the tanker Skipper, previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for alleged illicit oil transfers benefiting Iran-linked groups including Hezbollah.
- Venezuela’s foreign ministry condemned the action as theft and an act of international piracy in a formal statement.
- Senators from both parties, including Rand Paul and Chris Coons, voiced alarm and said Congress has not received detailed briefings on the operation.
- President Trump suggested the oil on board could be confiscated by the United States, following months of heightened U.S. naval deployments and interdictions in the Caribbean.