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Ninth tanker seized by US
U.S. forces have boarded the sanctioned 'Veronica III' in the Indian Ocean, marking the ninth vessel seized or interdicted in an intensifying campaign against the shadow fleet transporting illicit Venezuelan oil, which now stretched from the Caribbean to the far reaches of the Indo-Pacific. The tanker was intercepted on the night of Feb 14, 2026, without incident in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility after allegedly attempting to evade the quarantine on sanctioned oil shipments. The ship had departed Venezuela on Jan 3, the same day the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was captured, carrying approximately 1.9 million barrels of crude oil and fuel oil. The tanker has been involved in transporting Russian, Iranian, and Venezuelan oil since 2023 and had the alias name “DS Vector.” The vessel was first sanctioned by the Treasury Department on Dec 3, 2024, as part of a sweeping action targeting 35 entities and vessels linked to Iran’s petroleum trade. The tanker was managed by the Shanghai Future Ship Management Co. Ltd., a Chinese firm accused of facilitating illicit Iranian oil shipments for years. The company’s record included a 2021 incident in which one of its managed vessels was seized by Indonesian authorities after being caught transferring oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker—triggering an oil spill while both ships attempted to conceal their identities by disabling AIS. Treasury documents showed that the vessel had transported hundreds of thousands of metric tons of Iranian crude oilon behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company and the U.S.-designated China Concord Petroleum Company since at least 2022. Report with video: https://news.sky.com/story/us-forces-board-and-shut-down-sanctioned-venezuela-linked-oil-tanker-in-the-indian-ocean-13508068
Tankers at risk of seizure identified
After the 'Veronica' (IMO: 9256860) was finally seized on Jan 15 as one of the closest behavioural matches to previously seized Venezuelan-linked tankers, the 'Veronica III' was among a group of other tankers identified to be at risk. The ship has a very high maximum AIS gap (274 days), elevated STS and dark STS. Other vessels were the - 'Bertha: (IMO :9292163), with spoofing 5, high-risk STS 10, dark STS 15; - 'Vesna' (IMO: 9233349) with moderate spoofing, elevated STS and dark STS; - 'Lydya N' (IMO: 9153525) with spoofing 6, dark STS 10. These vessels were representing the closest statistical matches to the established enforcement pattern and were most likely to be acted on once high-risk port calls or STS activity occurs. They had in common dark or deceptive AIS behaviour, offshore pause/loitering, movement resumption and enforcement disruption. AIS spoofing was identifed as the strongest leading indicator, while prolonged AIS gaps and dark/STS activities were forming a parallel enforcement trigger. Across the 19 sanctioned Venezuelan-linked vessels that departed offshore or non-anchorage areas under the existing US naval blockade, all tankers, which were seized, had converged on the same behavioural arc over the past five months: The recent seizures had occured when multiple risk dimensions compounded, and not when a single rule was breached: The Seized vessels had spoofed nearly two times more than non-seized peers (4.2 vs 2.21).. Four of the seized vessels showed high spoofing intensity (3 of 5 are extreme outliers). The parallel escalation tracks were spoofing-dominant escalation and AIS gap/dark or STS-dominant escalation. The seized vessels also showed a higher exposure to high-risk port calls, pointing to clear operational pressure points where enforcement risk accelerates. In contrast, flag ambiguity did not act as a meaningful discriminator.
Sanctioned dark fleet tankers leaving Venezuelan waters despite US lockade
Venezuela’s oil exports have continued despite the attempts of the US government to impose one of the largest maritime quarantines in modern history. A fleet of tankers has adopted clandestine tactics to slip past U.S. naval patrols, raising questions about the effectiveness of the blockade and the risks of an escalation at sea. It also hinted at a sophisticated coordination among the tankers concerned. At least 16 oil tankers, long idled at Venezuelan terminals, have weighed anchor almost simultaneously before heading into open waters. The move was a coordinated effort in order to overwhelm the U.S. interdiction capacities. Some of the tankers appeared off the coast of Afric,a while they were in fact departing Venezuelan waters. Others transmitted dual signals, showing up in two positions at once. In several cases, crews have repainted the hulls of the vessels with false names, further complicating an identification, while spoofing and GNSS manipulation have become routine tools for these operators. Among the ships identified in the breakout were the 'Veronica III', with unknown and linked to Venezuela, belonging to the sanctioned fleet and having departed in ‘dark mode’, the 'Vesna' (IMO: 9233349), belonging to the sanctioned fleet, which spoofed AIS coordinates, and the 'Aquila II' (IMO: 9281152), belonging to the sanctioned fleet , which appeared thousands of miles away via false signals.
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