US military seizes another fugitive oil tanker linked to Venezuela

The U.S. military has seized another fugitive oil tanker linked to Venezuela in the Caribbean, U.S. Southern Command announced Thursday.

The U.S. has now seized six oil tankers since ramping up a campaign against illicit oil trade by Venezuela.

"In another pre-dawn action, Marines and Sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear, in support of the Department of Homeland Security, launched from USS Gerald R. Ford and apprehended Motor/Tanker Veronica without incident. The Veronica is the latest tanker operating in defiance of President Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean, proving the effectiveness of Operation Southern Spear yet again," U.S. Southern Command said in a statement.

"These operations are backed by the full power of the U.S. Navy's Amphibious Ready Group, including the ready and lethal platforms of USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio, and USS Fort Lauderdale. The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully. The Department of War, in coordination with interagency partners, will defend our homeland by ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere," the statement continued.

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The operation comes as President Donald Trump is set to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at the White House on Thursday.

The vessels intercepted so far have been either under U.S. sanctions or part of a "shadow fleet" of unregulated ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

Trump has said the U.S. will "run" Venezuela after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

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Trump told The New York Times in an interview that was published Wednesday that "only time will tell" how long the U.S. will be running the country, but said it would be "much longer" than a year. 

Additionally, Trump announced recently that Venezuela would hand over up to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S. and that the oil would be sold "immediately."

"We will rebuild it in a very profitable way," Trump told the Times. "We're going to be using oil, and we're going to be taking oil. We're getting oil prices down, and we're going to be giving money to Venezuela, which they desperately need."

Likewise, Trump shared a doctored image that looked like a Wikipedia page that identified him as "Acting President of Venezuela" since January 2026.

Fox News' Diana Stancy and Reuters contributed to this report.