U.S. forces boarded and seized a “ghost tanker” in the waters of the Caribbean on Friday as part of the Trump administration’s continuing effort to target sanctioned oil ships traveling to and from Venezuela.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem shared night vision video of the operation in a post on X Friday morning.
The footage shows a U.S. helicopter landing on the vessel, with personnel conducting a search of the deck and then tossing what appears to be an explosive device in front of a door leading to inside the tanker.
“This is owning the sea,” Noem wrote in her post.
Also posting the video on X, the U.S. Southern Command wrote, “Once again, our joint interagency forces sent a clear message this morning: ‘there is no safe haven for criminals.’”
According to the command:
In a pre-dawn action, Marines and Sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear, in support of the Department of Homeland Security, launched from the USS Gerald R. Ford and apprehended Motor/Tanker Olina in the Caribbean Sea without incident. The Department of War’s Operation Southern Spear is unwavering in its mission to defend our homeland by ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere.
“The ghost fleets will not outrun justice,” Noem also wrote. “They will not hide under false claims of nationality.”
U.S. records show that the Olina was sanctioned for moving Russian oil under its prior name, Minerva M, and flagged in Panama, according to the Associated Press.
Noem said ultimately the Coast Guard takes possession of the sanctioned oil tankers under U.S. and international law, eliminating “these funding streams for illicit activity including narco-terrorism.”
According to ship tracking databases reported by AP, the Olina last transmitted its location north of the Venezuela coast in November and has since been running dark with its location beacon turned off – earning the “ghost” designation.
The Olina is the fifth tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the Trump’s administration’s policy to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. capture and arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on drug trafficking charges in a surprise nighttime raid.
Both are in a federal lockup in New York and will face trial in a federal court.
Oil appears to play a central role in President Donald Trump’s plans to help turn Venezuela from a communist dictatorship to a capitalism-based democracy.
Trump in an early morning Truth Social post Friday said the U.S. and Venezuela “are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure.”
In another post, he wrote that “the Largest Oil Companies in the world” were coming to the White House on Friday afternoon to “discuss Venezuelan oil, our long term relationship with Venezuela, its security, its people.”
Executives from 17 oil companies will meet to discuss Trump’s goal of investing $100 billion in the South American country to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution, AP reported.
“A very big factor in this involvement will be the reduction of Oil Prices for the American People,” the president also wrote. “Additionally, and perhaps most importantly of all, will be the stoppage of Drugs and Criminals coming into the United States of America.”
The administration has said it expects to sell 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil, with the proceeds to go to both the U.S. and Venezuelan people.
As for the ghost tanker, the Olina could have been carrying up to 890,000 barrels of oil if it was full when it was seized.
“At the current market price of about $60 a barrel, a full cargo of oil from the tanker would be worth about $53 million,” according to AP’s calculations.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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