CARACAS, Venezuela (CMC) – The United States has seized a second oil tanker linked to Venezuela in recent weeks, enforcing a “blockade” ordered by United States President Donald Trump and drawing sharp condemnation from Caracas, which has branded the move “theft and hijacking”.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on Saturday that the Coast Guard, with support from the Pentagon, intercepted the vessel in international waters. The operation comes just days after Trump ordered a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, as Washington intensifies pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.

“The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region,” Noem said in a post on X. “We will find you, and we will stop you.”

Her post was accompanied by aerial video footage showing a helicopter hovering above the deck of a large tanker at sea.

A US military helicopter flies over the Panama-flagged Centuries, east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea. (Photo credit: Department of Homeland Security)
US officials said the vessel had last docked in Venezuela and was carrying sanctioned oil. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the tanker was part of what she described as Venezuela’s “shadow fleet”.

“It was a falsely flagged vessel operating as part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet to traffic stolen oil and fund the narcoterrorist Maduro regime,” Kelly wrote on X.

Three US officials had earlier told Reuters that the tanker had been intercepted, while the Coast Guard and Pentagon referred further questions to the White House.

The action marks the second tanker interception near Venezuela amid a broader US military build-up in the region. Trump’s latest order significantly escalates Washington’s enforcement of oil sanctions against Caracas.

Venezuela’s government strongly condemned the move, describing it as a violation of international law.

Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez said Venezuela “denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel transporting oil, as well as the forced disappearance of its crew, committed by military personnel of the United States of America in international waters.”

“These acts will not go unpunished,” she said, adding that Venezuela would take “all corresponding actions, including filing a complaint before the United Nations Security Council, other multilateral organisations, and the governments of the world.”

The Venezuelan oil ministry and state oil company PDVSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

British maritime risk management company Vanguard said the seized vessel was believed to be the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted east of Barbados in the Caribbean Sea, bringing the incident into the region’s maritime space.

However, Jeremy Paner, a partner at Washington, DC-based law firm Hughes Hubbard and a former investigator with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), said the vessel itself had not been sanctioned by the United States.

The seizure is likely to heighten diplomatic tensions and raise concerns among Caribbean states about enforcement actions taking place in international waters within the region.