Mike Baker

Navy and the Marine Corps in its post on X.

Regular PDB listeners will know that this campaign stretches back to late last year.

The first tanker was intercepted off Venezuela's coast on the 10th of December, and just five days before this operation, U.S.

forces seized another sanctioned tanker, the MT Veronica.

Now, most of the vessels have been picked up in or near Venezuelan waters, all but one, that would be the Bella One, which was intercepted in North Atlantic as it attempted to evade American enforcement.

But as for the Sajito, it's a Liberian-flagged tanker owned and managed by a Hong Kong-based company.

That's according to ship registration records.

The vessel last transmitted its position more than two months ago while departing the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.

U.S.

officials say it previously transported Venezuelan oil through networks tied to Russia's Shadow Fleet.

That's the criminal system designed to obscure cargo origins and skirt international sanctions.

That background matters because the tanker has been under Treasury Department sanctions since 2022 under an executive order tied to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

It's also sanctioned by the United Kingdom.

But like many other vessels tied to Venezuelan crew, the ship re-flagged, previously sailing under the Panamanian flag and the name Angelica Schultz.

That's just another example of how these vessels move through layers of registration ownership to evade sanctions.

Southern Command made clear what this operation was meant to signal.

In its statement, the command said the seizure, quote, demonstrates our resolve to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully, end quote.

The U.S.

military also released aerial footage showing the Sajita underway at sea, though unlike earlier videos of seizures, this one didn't show helicopters or boarding teams landing on the deck.

This latest seizure fits into a much larger push underway since Nicolas Maduro's capture in the U.S.