U.S. forces seized one tanker and are pursuing another on Wednesday. The seized tanker, Bella 1, was escorted by a Russian Submarine.
The United States seized the Russian‑flagged oil tanker Bella 1 in the Atlantic after a dramatic weeks‑long pursuit, officials confirmed. The operation, led by the Department of Homeland Security with military support, marks a new flashpoint in Washington’s confrontation with Moscow over Venezuela’s sanctioned oil trade.
The U.S. had sanctioned the Bella 1 in 2024 for allegedly carrying black-market Iranian oil on behalf of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations aligned with Tehran.
The U.S. brought in P-8 Poseidon “sub-hunter” aircraft and AC-130J gunships to help with the boarding operation of the ship south of Iceland, according to flight-tracking data and two U.S. officials.
It’s the largest, and probably the rustiest old tanker seized to date.
🚨 BREAKING: Video has been released of US forces SEIZING CONTROL of a massive oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela
Per President Trump, this is the LARGEST tanker ship ever seized.
The DOJ and FBI believe this ship was being used to deliver sanctioned oil from Venezuela to… pic.twitter.com/VlLVIMprmO
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 10, 2025
U.S. forces seized a second tanker, Sophia, in the waters off Latin America, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the operation.
The Russians claim it is piracy.
The article was updated to recognize the capture of the Sophia.
WARNING…WARNING…WARNING:
AWASH !!! AWASH !!! AWASH !!! AWASH !!!
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AWASH !!! AWASH !!! AWASH !!! AWASH !!!
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I read an article on another blog this morning that outlines President Trump’s plans to restore Venezuela. While reading of the destruction that Marxist Dictators Chavez and Maduro had wreaked upon that country, I began to consider the wreckage wrought by Democrats in so-called blue states during the past two decades and came to realize that some of these states… Read more »
And to further elaborate, what should America expect when it ‘elects’ congressional representatives like AOC, Crockett, Jayapal, Jeffries, Omar, Tlaib and dozens of others just like them? Why would any American constituency elect a foreign communist to represent them in congress? I guess for the same reason the entire country twice elected a foreign-born Moslem Sodomite to be our president.
The tentacle of terrorism, all of them, must be cut off.