Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday addressed the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker near Venezuela, saying the Coast Guard–led operation was carried out in coordination with the Departments of Defense and Justice, as well as the FBI.
“It was a successful operation directed by the president to ensure that we’re pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans,” she said.
President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday about the seizure as his administration continues to escalate military activity in the region.
“As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”
Trump did not provide details about the seizure but said it was an “interesting day.” Asked what would happen to the oil on the ship, Trump was unsure.
"We keep it, I guess," Trump said. "I don’t know."
Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that the government executed a seizure warrant on a tanker used to carry oil from Venezuela and Iran.
"For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations," Bondi said.
Video included in Bondi's post, which was shared hours after Trump's comments, showed people rappelling out of helicopters that hovered a few feet above the tanker’s deck before entering part of the ship, armed with long guns.
The people seen in the video rappelling from a helicopter are members of the Coast Guard, according to two U.S. officials and a federal law enforcement official.
A federal law enforcement official identified the ship as the Skipper to NBC News on Thursday.
The Skipper is the same vessel previously identified by the Treasury Department as the Adisa, an oil tanker tied to a sanctions-evading smuggling network that U.S. officials say moved Iranian oil to generate revenue for Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. The Treasury said in a 2022 sanctions notice that the Adisa was owned through shell companies linked to network facilitator Viktor Artemov and used to transport oil on behalf of the smuggling network.
The two U.S. officials said the Coast Guard team included members of the Maritime Security Response Teams, elite forces who specialize in maritime counterterrorism and counternarcotics and are trained in high-risk boarding.
A senior White House official said there are no other warrants currently approved by judges for other seizures of oil tankers like the one performed Wednesday.
Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister, Yván Gil Pinto, denounced the seizure on social media, calling it a “blatant theft” and “an act of international piracy.”
“The true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have been laid bare. It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” he said.
He further called the act an “attempt to distract” from the “political spectacle staged today in Oslo.”
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado appeared in Oslo early Thursday, seen in public for the first time in 11 months, hours after her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
Oil prices began steadily rising as reports of the seizure circulated throughout the day, climbing more than 1.3%, or about 75 cents, as of 3:45 p.m. ET. The price of crude oil is one of the primary factors in the price consumers pay at the gas pump.
News of the seizure comes after Trump told Politico in an interview published Tuesday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered.” Trump declined to comment to Politico about whether the U.S. could send troops to the country.
His administration has built up a military presence in the region over the last month, including sending the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean. The vessel is host to squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers.
The U.S. has been striking alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean since September. Trump has justified the strikes by characterizing the U.S. as being in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and describing the boats as being operated by foreign terrorist organizations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has come under scrutiny for a Sept. 2 strike on a boat that included a secondary hit, killing two survivors of the initial attack. Critics have questioned whether the “double tap” constituted a war crime.
Hegseth defended the strike by citing the “fog of war,” saying he didn’t personally see the survivors before another hit was approved.
Lawmakers from both parties in the House and Senate have started inquiries into the administration’s attack on these boats.
Maduro has accused the U.S. of trying to fabricate a war against him. The Venezuelan president was charged in 2020, during the first Trump administration, with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.
Trump recently offered a $50 million reward for Maduro’s arrest.
Speaking to farmers today, Maduro referred to tensions with the U.S. but did not mention the tanker. He said that the country is ready for a fight.
"It’s not a time for cowards," he said. "It's time for combat."
