WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) – The United States (US) Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Tuesday announced that it has targeted 10 individuals and entities based in Venezuela and Iran, as the Trump administration intensifies its military-build up in the Caribbean Sea.

OFAC said that among those being targeted is a Venezuelan company that Washington claims has contributed to Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) trade with Venezuela.

“Treasury is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons around the world,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Joh Hurley.

“We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran’s military-industrial complex access to the US financial system.”

OFAC said this action builds on the department’s nonproliferation designations in October and November in support of the September 27, 2025 re-imposition of United Nations sanctions and other restrictions on Iran.

“Iran’s UAV and missile programmes threaten US and allied personnel in the Middle East and destabilise commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Additionally, Iran’s ongoing provision of conventional weapons to Caracas constitutes a threat to US interests in the Western Hemisphere, including the Homeland, and the United States will use all available measures to prevent this trade,” said OFAC.

OFAC said this action is being taken in furtherance of National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, “which directs the US government to curtail Iran’s ballistic missile programme, counter Iran’s development of other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, deny Iran a nuclear weapon, and deny the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) access to assets and resources that sustain their destabilising activities.”

Further, OFAC said it is taking this action pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13382, “which targets weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferators and their supporters,” and EO 13949, “which targets property of certain persons with respect to the conventional arms activities of Iran.”

OFAC said  since 2006, Iran and Venezuela have coordinated Iran’s provision of Qods Aviation Industries’ (QAI) Mohajer-series UAVs for Venezuela, which are re-branded in Venezuela as ANSU-series UAVs.

OFAC said Venezuela-based Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA (EANSA) “maintains and oversees the assembly of QAI’s Mohajer-series UAVs in Venezuela and has directly negotiated with QAI, contributing to QAI’s sale of millions of dollars’ worth of Mohajer-6 UAVs to Venezuela.”

The Mohajer-6, a combat UAV with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, is manufactured by QAI, OFAC said, adding that EANSA was also involved in the assembly of aircraft that QAI sold to Venezuela.

OFAC said EANSA maintains UAVs operated by the Venezuelan armed forces, including the Iranian Mohajer-2, known locally as Arpia or ANSU-100, which is an updated, armed version of the Arpia-001 “capable of launching Iranian-designed Qaem air-to-ground guided bombs”.

As a result of Tuesday’s action, OFAC said “all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons…that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC”.

In addition, it said that “any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 per cent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.

The sanctions come as Trump said on Friday that the US military has “hit” a facility inside Venezuela, where suspected drug vessels dock.

Officials say the US military has killed over 100 alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean since Trump’s so-called war on drug trafficking began in early September.