US Seizes Venezuelan Oil Tanker, Trump Implements High Tensions Dispute With Maduro

JAKARTA - President Donald Trump said the United States confiscated oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela as tensions escalated with the government of President Nicol lays Maduro.

The use of US troops to take over merchant ships is highly unusual and marks the Trump administration's latest efforts to increase pressure on Maduro, which is charged with terrorism of drugs in the United States.

The US has built its largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly attacks on ships suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.

"We have just confiscated a tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a large, very large tanker, the largest ever confiscated," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"It was confiscated for a very good reason," he added.

Trump did not provide any additional details. When asked what would happen to the oil on the tanker, Trump said, "Well, we'll keep it, I think."

The confiscation of oil tankers is led by the US Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to an unauthorized US official to comment publicly and speak on condition of anonymity.

Reportedly, the Coast Guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the official said.

Ford was in the Caribbean Sea after arriving last month in a demonstration of great power, joining other warships.

Videos posted on social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi showed people descending using ropes from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as the helicopter flew just a few feet from the deck.

Bondi wrote over the years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States for its involvement in a network of illegal oil shipments supporting foreign terrorist organizations.