Trump admin seizes Venezuelan oil tanker Skipper under sanctions law

The Trump administration is counting on a really completely different authorized justification for seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker than hanging suspected drug traffickers, though each strikes are geared toward rising stress on Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro.

Legal professional Common Pam Bondi on Thursday described the U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan crude oil tanker as a easy sanctions enforcement motion rooted in a federal court docket order. Bondi mentioned the tanker, lengthy sanctioned for transferring illicit Venezuelan and Iranian oil in help of international terrorist organizations, was taken into custody by the Coast Guard with help from the Struggle Ministry after investigators served a warrant off the coast of Venezuela.

A senior administration official advised Fox Information that the sanctions designation is the one authorized foundation for seizing the ship — and never the armed battle authority that the administration has invoked to justify kinetic assaults on drug-trafficking vessels. The excellence highlights the federal government’s reliance on two very completely different authorized frameworks in the identical area: conventional sanctions and forfeiture statutes for the tanker, and a controversial assertion of battle authority towards drug cartels for the maritime assaults.

Legal professional Common Pam Bondi on December 11, 2025 described the U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan crude oil tanker as a easy sanctions enforcement motion rooted in a federal court docket order. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

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The tanker, often called the Skipper, has been on a US sanctions listing for a number of years for allegedly carrying crude oil linked to a clandestine oil community between Venezuela and Iran that Washington says has helped generate income for international terrorist organizations.

In keeping with officers, this designation made the ship “locked property” beneath U.S. regulation, permitting the Justice Division to hunt and acquire a federal order to grab it beneath civil forfeiture statutes. That course of — rooted in home regulation and carried out by a U.S. court docket — is the premise for Thursday’s operation, administration officers mentioned.

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Though the federal government maintains that the seizure is totally permissible beneath U.S. sanctions and forfeiture regulation, using home authorized authorities to detain a international ship on the excessive seas has traditionally sparked debate in maritime regulation circles, particularly if the ship isn’t flying the U.S. flag. The declare that the skipper was stateless or fraudulently marked may very well be important in that debate.

Newly launched footage reveals US forces securing a Venezuelan oil tanker. (@AGPamBondi by way of X)

The tanker, often called the Skipper, has been on a US sanctions listing for a number of years. (@AGPamBondi by way of X)

If true, “the US may deal with this ship as ‘stateless’ and seize it as a result of it in any other case violates US regulation,” regulation professor Julian Ku advised Fox Information Digital. “That might be the strongest authorized foundation.”

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Beneath the sanctions framework, the federal government doesn’t declare battlefield authority or self-defense powers. As a substitute, officers are counting on the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act and associated OFAC rules, which permit the U.S. to focus on properties linked to sanctioned entities, even when these properties are positioned overseas.

A senior administration official emphasised that that is the one authorized principle the administration is utilizing for the skipper’s seizure, saying it doesn’t comprise any of the Article II battle arguments the administration has used to justify its assaults on cartel boats in worldwide waters.

The result’s a civilian enforcement motion being carried out with the assistance of the navy, along with a separate navy marketing campaign primarily based on the declare that the US is “at battle” with international drug cartels. However each efforts are rooted in what onlookers imagine is the president’s supposed objective: to stress Maduro to resign.