The U.S. Coast Guard is awaiting for additional resources to arrive before potentially attempting to stop and board another oil tanker linked to Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
According to an unnamed U.S. official “familiar with the matter” cited by Reuters, an oil tanker identified as the Bella 1 has refused to be boarded by U.S. Coast Guard officials.
President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that the U.S. remains in active pursuit of the Bella 1 and detailed that the vessel “came from the wrong location, it came out of Venezuela.” The vessel was sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for its links to a Hezbollah-linked company that engaged in activities in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).
“The ship, which maritime groups have identified as the Bella 1, has refused to be boarded by the Coast Guard. That means that the task will likely fall to one of just two teams of specialists – known as Maritime Security Response Teams – who can board vessels under these circumstances, including by rappelling from helicopters,” Reuters wrote.
Reuters, citing an unnamed U.S. official that spoke with the outlet on condition of anonymity, said that U.S. Coast Guards presently aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier “were from a Maritime Security Response Team and at the time too far from Bella 1 to carry out a boarding operation.”
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“There are limited teams who are trained for these types of boardings,” Corey Ranslem, chief executive of maritime security group Dryad Global and U.S. Coast Guard veteran told Reuters.
Past reports indicated that the Bella 1 tanker is bearing Panamanian flags, and, according to unnamed sources cited by Reuters, is part of a sanctioned “dark fleet” involved in Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion. On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard, alongside the Department of War, seized the Centuries, a Panama-flagged oil tanker that last docked in Venezuela presumptively bound towards China.
Hours after the operation, Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha announced that authorities determined that the Centuries failed to comply with Panama’s flagging rules and violated several local and international maritime regulations, including the deliberate disconnection of tracking devices and discrepancies in crew records.
“All these variables lead us to believe that our flag is not being used responsibly. And we have acted in accordance with maritime law. Nothing more, we continue to investigate and demand not only that these particular ships be investigated, but that all ships flying our flag respect our laws, maritime law, and above all, maritime justice,” the Martínez-Acha said.
Earlier this month, the U.S. interdicted the Skipper, another sanctioned oil tanker linked to illicit Iranian oil smuggling, which reportedly carried a “false flag of nationality” at the time it was seized.
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