U.S. military forces have boarded and seized a third sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean Sea, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday, as Washington intensifies its enforcement of maritime sanctions tied to Venezuela and other sanctioned regimes.
In a post on social media platform X, the U.S. Department of Defense said forces boarded the crude oil tanker Bertha overnight without incident in the Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. According to the statement, the vessel was alleged to be operating in defiance of U.S. sanctions and an established quarantine on sanctioned ships.
The Bertha — flying under a Cook Islands flag and linked to Shanghai Legendary Ship Management Company Limited — has been under U.S. sanctions since January 2020, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control says. Reports indicate the tanker last transmitted its position on February 24, sailing in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.
The Pentagon said the Bertha departed Venezuelan waters in early January as part of a flotilla that has largely been intercepted by U.S. forces. Shipping data suggest it was carrying around 1.9 million barrels of heavy Venezuelan crude oil reportedly bound for China.
This interception follows earlier U.S. military actions this month in the same region. Defense officials said forces had previously boarded the Suezmax tanker Aquila II, and another vessel, the Veronica III, was also taken in similar operations.
The latest operation is part of a broader campaign under the Trump administration to enforce sanctions on petroleum shipments tied to Venezuela, Iran and other entities on U.S. sanctions lists, including so-called “shadow fleet” tankers that obscure their origins to evade restrictions. U.S. officials assert that tracking and intercepting such ships, even far from U.S. territorial waters, demonstrates the military’s global reach and commitment to sanctions enforcement.
The Pentagon did not immediately provide further details on the vessel’s disposition following its boarding, and efforts to reach the ship’s management company for comment were unsuccessful.