The United States has intensified its actions against Venezuela by targeting a third oil tanker operating near the country.

A U.S. official disclosed to Reuters that the Coast Guard is actively chasing down a vessel engaged in illegal activities, following directives from President Donald Trump to increase pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro.

“The United States Coast Guard is actively pursuing a sanctioned vessel belonging to a ‘dark fleet,’ which is part of Venezuela’s strategy to evade sanctions,” the official stated.

“This vessel is disguising its identity with a false flag and has been placed under a judicial seizure order,” the official continued.

Another official noted that while the tanker is indeed sanctioned, it has yet to be boarded. The official explained that interception methods can vary, including approaching the vessel by sea or air.

It is also the third such interception by the US military, after Trump announced a ‘blockade’ of all oil tankers under sanctions entering and leaving Venezuela last week.

So far, the Trump administration’s drone strike campaign against Venezuelan boats have killed 95 people.

The White House claims these boats are ferrying illegal drugs to the US at the direction of Maduro and his government. No evidence has been provided to the public to substantiate allegations of Maduro’s involvement.

A boat sails in front of a crude oil tanker anchored on Lake Maracaibo near Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela, on December 18, 2025

On Sunday, officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity did not give a specific location for the operation or name the vessel being pursued.

British maritime risk management group Vanguard, along with a US maritime security source, identified the vessel as Bella 1.

The large crude oil carrier was added last year to the sanctions list of the US Treasury Department, which said the vessel has links to Iran.

Bella 1 was empty when it was approaching Venezuela on Sunday, according to TankerTrackers.com. 

The vessel in 2021 provided transportation for Venezuela’s oil to China, according to internal documents from state-run oil company PDVSA. It had also previously carried Iranian crude, according to the vessel monitoring service. 

The first two oil tankers seized were operating on the black market and providing oil to countries under sanctions, Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said on Sunday.

‘And so I don’t think that people need to be worried here in the U.S. that the prices are going to go up because of these seizures of these ships,’ Hassett said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ program. 

‘There’s just a couple of them, and they were black market ships.’

The White House claims these boats are ferrying illegal drugs to the US at the direction of Maduro and his government

Analysts have warned the new seizures may push oil prices slightly higher when Asian trading resumes on Monday.

‘We might see prices increasing modestly at the opening, considering market participants could see this as an escalation with more Venezuelan barrels at risk’ because the tanker intercepted on Saturday was not under U.S. sanctions, UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.

Tensions have escalated between the two nations in recent months, and some members of Congress have pushed for the US to get directly involved in a conflict with Venezuela.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appeared on Capitol Hill earlier this week to brief Senators on strikes conducted by US military forces in the Caribbean on targets that the administration has described as Venezuelan drug boats. 

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham noted after one of those Tuesday briefings that Hegseth and Rubio did not provide details about what the White House’s plan is for dealing with Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

‘It was confusing… I want to know what’s going to happen next. Is it the policy to take Maduro down? It should be if it’s not,’ Graham said at the time. 

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, another Republican, told CNN State of the Union host Kasie Hunt on Sunday that he would support regime change in Venezuela, but did not commit to providing US arms or boots on the ground in the country.

‘I would tell you, the United States’ position for now six years, I believe, has been that [Maduro] is not the recognized leader of Venezuela,’ Lankford told Hunt.

‘We have supported the opposition leaders, the past two opposition leaders in Venezuela. We put sanctions on them,’ he added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrive for an event at the State Department, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in Washington

Senator Tim Kaine speaks to the press following weekly policy luncheons, in Washington, DC on December 16, 2025

When asked about providing boots on the ground and arms in the country, Lankford said ‘arms is a different issue. That’s a very different issue in that case. We — if you break it, you buy it,’ 

‘We have seen that when we pushed out the leadership in Libya, and it’s just a collapsed, fail state at this point,’ he also noted, before concluding by saying that ‘Venezuela is destabilizing the entire Western Hemisphere,’ and that America ‘should not allow that to happen.’

Democrat Senator Tim Kaine, however, said that despite his previous criticism of Maduro being an illegitimate leader, the US should not be pursuing a regime change.

Instead, Kaine told NBC’s Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker that sanctions and other tools should be used to punish Maduro, adding that ‘we definitely should not be waging war without a vote of Congress.’