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OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:17 PM – Saturday, December 20, 2025
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that United States military forces have intercepted a second merchant ship off the coast of Venezuela.
“In a pre-dawn action early this morning on Dec. 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela,” Noem wrote on X Saturday. “The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you.”
She also thanked the “brave men and women” of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of War for their efforts.
In the post, she included video footage of the operation where personnel can be seen being lowered onto the vessel from a helicopter.
This comes 10 days after the seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast by U.S. forces as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom he has long opposed as an illegitimate dictator.
Trump also believes Maduro to be involved with drug trafficking and narcoterrorism on American soil, and his administration has conducted at least 28 military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling maritime vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean since September. This is in addition to his efforts to build a U.S. military presence in the area, including the deployment of approximately 15,000 U.S. service members and 11 warships, as well as his announcement on Thanksgiving that he planned on-land military actions soon in Venezuela.
On Wednesday, Trump declared the Venezuelan government a terrorist organization while ordering a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.
As of last week, more than 30 tankers in the Caribbean were designated as sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury (DOT), according to the independent ship-tracking site TankerTrackers.com and global intelligence company Kpler.
At least 12 of these boats, including the previously seized vessel, the Skipper, are carrying Venezuelan oil, Kpler reports.
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