Overview
- A Coast Guard tactical team boarded the motor tanker Veronica before dawn in the Caribbean, with Marines and sailors launching from USS Gerald R. Ford under Joint Task Force Southern Spear, and the ship was taken without incident.
- U.S. Southern Command said the Veronica is the largest tanker intercepted so far and the sixth seized as Washington enforces President Trump’s quarantine on sanctioned vessels.
- The vessel is listed under Guyana’s flag and identified as part of the sanctions‑evading shadow fleet, having last reported at anchor off Aruba on Jan. 3 with a partial crude load.
- Registration data links the ship to prior names Gallileo and Pegas and to Russian ownership ties, with Pegas previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury.
- The operation is tied to a broader drive to control Venezuelan oil revenue, with officials saying the U.S. has begun selling confiscated cargoes, including an initial deal worth about $500 million.