US forces have boarded the Panamanian-flagged tanker Veronica III in the Indian Ocean. The Pentagon said the tanker "tried to defy" US President Donald Trump’s blockade of sanctioned Venezuelan vessels. It left Venezuela on the same day as the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro in January. "We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down," the Pentagon added on its X post. A video showed US forces boarding the tanker by helicopter. Venezuela faces long-running US sanctions on its oil exports. To bypass these, it has used a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers. Trump ordered a blockade of such ships in December to pressure Maduro. After US forces abducted Maduro in January, several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast, including Veronica III. Last week, the US also intercepted another tanker, Aquila II, in a similar operation. So far, at least nine Venezuelan oil ships have been seized by US forces. US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said oil sales from Venezuelan shipments controlled by Washington have generated more than $1 billion since Maduro’s capture, with $5 billion more expected soon. TankerTrackers.com reports Veronica III left Venezuela on January 3 with about 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil. The ship has been involved with Russian, Iranian, and Venezuelan oil since 2023. The US Treasury Department has sanctioned the vessel related to Iran. The Panama Maritime Authority said on Sunday that the ship’s registration was cancelled in December 2024. The Pentagon has not confirmed if Veronica III was formally seized or placed under US control. Experts say seized tankers are only a small part of around 800 sanctioned vessels worldwide. Meanwhile, US forces also attacked a boat in the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, killing three people amid ongoing strikes against alleged drug shipments. These strikes have killed at least 133 people since September 2025.