The United States has seized an oil tanker that recently left Venezuela, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
This is the second time this month that the United States has seized a ship carrying oil off the coast of the country.
The move comes after US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
Venezuela condemned the recent American seizure, describing it as “theft and kidnapping.” Venezuela has previously accused the United States of trying to steal its resources.
“These actions will not go unpunished,” a Venezuelan government statement said, adding that it intends to file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council and “other multilateral agencies and world governments.”
The US Coast Guard led the operation, similar to one that took place earlier this month. A specialized tactical team boarded the ship, and it was in international waters when it was seized.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees the Coast Guard, shared a video of the operation on X.
“In a pre-dawn operation on December 20, the US Coast Guard, with support from the War Department, detained an oil tanker that had last docked in Venezuela,” Noem wrote.
It published a seven-minute video of the operation, showing American helicopters landing on the deck of a ship with the name “Corn” written on the side.
“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil used to fund narco-terrorism in the region,” Noem wrote, adding: “We will find you and we will stop you.”
The Centuries is a Panama-flagged ship, but in the past five years it has also sailed under the flags of Greece and Liberia, according to records seen by the BBC.
It is not on the US Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned vessels.
In recent weeks, the United States has strengthened its military presence in the Caribbean Sea, carrying out deadly strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boats, killing about 100 people.
The United States has provided no public evidence that these ships were carrying drugs, and the military has come under increasing scrutiny from Congress because of the strikes.
The United States has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a terrorist organization called Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.
The Trump administration accuses him and the group of using “stolen” oil to “finance themselves, drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder, and kidnapping.”
After the seizure of the second ship, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the United States would continue to “relentlessly conduct maritime interdiction operations… to dismantle illicit criminal networks.”
“Violence, drugs and chaos will not take over the Western Hemisphere.”
Venezuela – which is home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves – relies heavily on revenues from its oil exports to finance its government spending.
Trump’s announcement of the “blockade” came less than a week after the United States seized an oil tanker believed to be part of the “ghost fleet” off the coast of Venezuela, which allegedly used various strategies to hide its work.
The White House said the ship in question, called Skipper, was involved in “illicit oil shipping” and would be transferred to a US port.
The Venezuelan government denounced the move, and Maduro said the United States had “kidnapped the crew” and “stole” the ship.