The ship’s seizure comes more than a week after it maneuvered through a U.S. Navy blockade of sanctioned tankers leaving port in Venezuela.
This image from video posted on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s X account, and partially redacted by the source, shows an oil tanker being seized by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela on Dec. 10, 2025. | U.S. Attorney General’s Office/X via AP
The United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, American officials said, after chasing the vessel across the ocean as it headed toward Europe from Venezuela — a significant escalation in the administration’s campaign to capture sanctioned ships.
The seizure of the tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, comes more than a week after it maneuvered through a U.S. Navy blockade of sanctioned tankers leaving port in Venezuela. The ship switched its registration to a Russian-flagged vessel during the chase, setting up a possible diplomatic row with Moscow. Politico confirmed the seizure earlier on Wednesday.
American helicopters and a Coast Guard vessel were being used to board the tanker under law enforcement authority granted to the Coast Guard, while American and British submarine-hunting P-8 surveillance planes — and at least three smaller American surveillance aircraft — circled the area near British waters, according to plane tracking websites.
The U.S. sanctioned the Bella-1 in 2024 after American officials alleged it was carrying black market Iranian oil. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on social media Wednesday that the Bella, had been trying to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, as operators changed the ships’ flag and painted a new name — the Marinera — on the hull in an attempt to avoid capture.
It also came as the Navy and Coast Guard seized a second tanker in the Caribbean on Wednesday morning, targeting a vessel that the U.S. military characterized as “a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker” conducting “illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea.”
Trump administration officials said on Wednesday that the U.S. had seized the vessels as part of the nation’s expansive counter-drug mission that has now moved beyond the waters of the Caribbean, where the Pentagon has parked an aircraft carrier and destroyers.
But though the Trump administration has ordered the capture of several sanctioned vessels before, the seizure of the Russian-flagged ship could create a new point of tension between Washington and Moscow as President Donald Trump’s envoys are engaged in intense diplomacy with their Russian counterparts over a peace deal in Ukraine.
At the same time, the administration has been looking for more avenues to pressure Venezuela and Iran, two close Russian allies, after the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation last week. Trump has said that he would hit Tehran’s clerical regime “very hard” if more protesters are harmed after days of unrest in economic protests.
U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed that British bases were used for staging for the operation, and said in a statement that the ship, “with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine.”
He pledged the U.K. “will continue to step up our action against shadow fleet activity to protect our national security, our economy, and global stability.”
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS, the Russian state media agency, that “for reasons unknown to us, the Russian vessel is getting excessive attention from the US and NATO militaries, clearly disproportionate to its peaceful status.”
The Trump administration continued to strike a defiant tone after the seizure on Wednesday. “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media just as U.S. European Command conducted the operation, which was coordinated with the Justice and Homeland Security departments.
It is unclear where the Russian tanker will head next now that American law enforcement is in control of the ship.
The Russian Transport Ministry issued a terse statement after Wednesday’s seizure, pointing out that under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, “the high seas are governed by the principle of freedom of navigation, and no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered under the jurisdiction of other states.”
“This sends a clear message to Russia and their use of black fleets to move sanctioned oil around the world,” said one European official, who was granted anonymity to speak about national security issues. “It’s very welcome news.”
The seizure of the Bella is a clear sign that the administration plans to keep the pressure on Venezuela. The administration has been working to impose an embargo on sanctioned vessels as a central part of the pressure campaign since the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the Russian-flagged Skipper last month.
The seizure took place as Trump has taken a far more active role in South America in recent months. The administration’s greatest show of force to date came on Saturday, when the U.S. military apprehended Maduro in his palace in Caracas to stand trial on narco-trafficking and corruption charges.
With Maduro now sidelined, the administration is planning to take a more direct role in selling Venezuelan oil for an indefinite period, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday.
Trump has also suggested that Colombia could be next on his agenda for regime change. Cuba, too, is on the president’s mind, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long pushed for the overthrow of the Communist government in Havana.
The president’s interest in South American affairs comes despite only muted support from the American public, which overwhelmingly opposed military intervention against the country in a December Quinnipiac poll. Just one-third of Americans told a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday that they supported the operation to oust Maduro, with a majority concerned that the U.S. would become too entrenched in the affairs of the country in the aftermath of the attack.
By Paul McLeary, Gregory Svirnovskiy and Jack Detsc
Eva Hartog and Esther Webber contributed to this report.