Document shows U.S. seized Venezuelan oil tanker hours before federal warrant expired

U.S. forces boarded and took control of a Venezuelan oil tanker last week just hours before a federal warrant for its seizure expired, according to a newly released but heavily redacted 27-page warrant.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said the document should be unsealed because the American operation to seize the vessel, a Venezuelan tanker operating under the name Skipper, is now public knowledge.

The document reveals that the U.S. military seized the tanker on the same day the warrant was set to expire, Dec. 10. The warrant was issued on Nov. 26, which gave the U.S. two weeks to seize the ship.

But there is little other information in the heavily redacted version of the warrant released late last Friday.

In a statement accompanying the release, Department of Justice officials said the crude oil tanker was used as part of a covert oil shipping network that supports Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations.

“The seizure of this vessel highlights our successful efforts to impose costs on the governments of Venezuela and Iran. Sanctions enforcement requires a whole-of-government approach and the FBI is proud to be part of the team,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in the statement.

The U.S. has long targeted the ship as a rogue vessel and said it was violating international sanctions on Iranian oil. It was allegedly transporting Iranian and Venezuelan oil to Cuba.

The White House said last week that the U.S. will seize the oil from the tanker.

The seizure came amid a U.S. military campaign targeting alleged drug boats off the coasts of Central and South America.

The Trump administration says those boats are transporting illegal drugs from Venezuela to the U.S., though it has offered little evidence publicly to back up those allegations.

The U.S. has significant military assets in the region and there is a growing expectation that President Trump soon could order strikes against Venezuela.

The administration may believe that tying the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to illicit oil shipping networks that support terrorist organizations could provide more legal and political justification for such strikes.

The seized ship Skipper was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 when it sailed as the Panamanian-flagged ship Adisa. At the time of the sanctions, the vessel was owned by Triton Navigation in the Marshall Islands.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Triton in 2022 along with Viktor Sergiyovitch Artemov, a Swiss-based Ukrainian citizen. The assets control office said it was sanctioning Mr. Artemov because he led a network of ships and shell companies used to export Iranian oil to fund the IRGC and Hezbollah.

• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.