The Pentagon says US forces boarded a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker that attempted to evade them after departing the Caribbean. It is not entirely clear if the vessel was tied to Venezuela’s shadow fleet.
The Pentagon on Monday said US forces boarded a sanctioned Panama-flagged oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean.
France’s AFP news agency reported that US forces seized the tanker after releasing a social media post announcing that the Aquila II had been “boarded without incident.”
The Department of Defense released a video on X to accompany the announcement.
“The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President [Donald] Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” the post read, continuing, “It ran, and we followed.”
When the @DeptofWar says quarantine, we mean it. Nothing will stop DoW from defending our Homeland — even in oceans halfway around the world.
Overnight, U.S. military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident in the… pic.twitter.com/kYVAQC5io9
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) February 9, 2026
https://www.dw.com/en/us-seizes-sanctioned-oil-tanker-in-indian-ocean/a-75886162