US Forces Board Sanctioned Oil Tanker in Indo-Pacific

Military forces intercepted the Veronica III in the Indo-Pacific military region without incident on Feb. 15.

U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III in the Indo-Pacific military region on Feb. 15, 2026. U.S. Department of War

The United States intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean during the overnight hours of Feb. 15, according to the Department of War.

U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III in the Indo-Pacific military region and inspected it “without incident,” the department said, noting that the vessel tried to defy President Donald Trump’s quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.

“We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down,” the Department of War wrote in an X post on Feb. 15. “No other nation has the reach, endurance, or will to do this.”

Images shared by the Department of War showed armed soldiers boarding the black, white, and red vessel after it allegedly attempted to “slip” through a U.S.-enforced quarantine.

“International waters are not [a] sanctuary,” the Department of War said.

“By land, air, or sea, we will find you and deliver justice. The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies freedom of movement in the maritime domain.”

The crude oil tanker involved in the Feb. 15 operation, which was flagged in Panama, was listed on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals sanctions list, according to OpenSanctions.

“The tanker (VLCC class) is engaged in the illegal transportation of hundreds of thousands of metric tons of sanctioned Iranian oil on behalf of the sanctioned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC),” according to OpenSanctions.

The tanker previously used different names and was flagged in Greece and Liberia, the database states.

The Department of War declined to comment on which country the tanker was coming from when asked by The Epoch Times on Feb. 15.

Military forces intercepted the Veronica III in the Indo-Pacific military region without incident on Feb. 15, 2026. U.S. Department of War

The United States has escalated a blockade on vessels traveling to and from Venezuela after capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a military raid last month.

The Feb. 15 incident is the second time in a week that the U.S. forces boarded a crude oil tanker in the Indian Ocean.

On Feb. 9, the Department of War announced that military forces had boarded the Aquila II in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean.

“It ran, and we followed,” the Department of War wrote on X.

The Aquila II, a vessel that previously used the name Astro Polaris, was allegedly responsible for using deceptive practices to export sanctioned crude oil from Russian ports in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea, and Pacific region, according to OpenSanctions.

“The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean,” the Department of War said.

“No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain.”

The Pentagon did not say whether the ship was connected to Venezuela, which faces U.S. sanctions on its oil.

The U.S. military also did not share details as to why it boarded the ship, which has happened in at least seven other operations when sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela were seized.

Early last month the Aquila II, which was built in 2003, allegedly was one of at least 16 tankers that exited ports in Venezuela, defying the blockade by the United States, per records in OpenSanctions.

The ship exited the Venezuelan port on Jan. 3, the same day U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife from inside a residence in the Fort Tiuna military complex in the country’s capital of Caracas.

Maduro was charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States, according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.