Kerry Kahn

says is the leader of a, quote, narco-terrorist organization.

Maduro has declared a state of external disturbance and called for an immediate move to arms struggle.

Carrie Khan, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro.

Right.

We have limited official information on the situation right now in the Caribbean.

The Pentagon and the Coast Guard is referring all inquiries to the White House, which is not commenting.

But late yesterday, one U.S.

official who was not authorized to speak publicly did tell NPR the Coast Guard was in, quote, active pursuit of a ship.

The official said that ship, the tanker, was, quote, a dark fleet vessel attempting to illegally evade sanctions.

The official also stated that the tanker was flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.

What's a dark fleet vessel?

Usually, these are oil tankers that use a lot of deceptive practices to evade international sanctions, like they fly fake national flags.

They can disable their transponder, send out fake signals, all to hide where they've been and where they're going.

But this is not the only ship the U.S.

targeted over the weekend.

In the pre-dawn hour Saturday – and this is according to a social media post by U.S.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem – she said the Coast Guard, with the help from the military that's out there in the Caribbean, apprehended a different oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela –

According to data from the monitoring group TankerTrackers.com, the ship was not under U.S.

sanctions, though.

A White House spokeswoman later then posted on social media that the tanker was flying under a false flag.