The US military boarded the oil tanker Veronica III in the Indian Ocean after tracking it all the way from the Caribbean Sea, the Pentagon confirmed on Sunday. The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged ship under US sanctions related to Iran, according to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. US forces conducted “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding” operation on the vessel. 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 from the Pentagon showed US troops boarding the tanker. The Defence Department added, “Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil.” After the boarding, several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast. TankerTrackers.com co-founder Samir Madani told the Associated Press that at least 16 tankers left Venezuela in defiance of the quarantine. The Pentagon has not confirmed if Veronica III was seized or placed under US control and said it had no further information beyond its public statement.