The US military has boarded another sanctioned tanker, the Veronica III, in the Indian Ocean. The Pentagon said the forces tracked the vessel from the Caribbean Sea to target illegal oil linked to Venezuela. Venezuela’s oil is under US sanctions, and the country uses a secret fleet of fake-flagged tankers to smuggle crude oil globally. The Veronica III, a Panamanian-flagged ship, left Venezuela on January 3 with almost 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil. This date matches when Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was captured during a US military operation. The Pentagon stated, “The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine – hoping to slip away,. We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.” Video posted by the Pentagon showed US troops boarding the tanker. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control confirms the Veronica III is under US sanctions due to its connection with Iran. TankerTrackers.com revealed that the Veronica III has been linked to oil from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela since 2023. Last week, the US military also boarded the Aquila II tanker in the Indian Ocean, which is currently held while its future is decided. The Pentagon has not confirmed whether the Veronica III has been seized and placed under US control. Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, reported that at least 16 tankers have left Venezuela in violation of the US quarantine since 2023. This shows the ongoing efforts by the US to seize tankers and control Venezuela’s oil supplies.