The United States has seized two sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela in back-to-back actions in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. U.S. forces boarded one tanker in the North Atlantic on Wednesday after pursuing it for weeks. U.S. European Command says the merchant vessel Bella 1 was seized for “violations of U.S. sanctions." Then, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem revealed U.S. forces also took control of the tanker Sophia in the Caribbean. Noem says both ships were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.” The seizures come days after U.S. military forces in a raid in Venezuela captured then-President Nicolás Maduro, who says he was kidnapped.
