{"id":178017,"date":"2026-01-07T10:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=178017"},"modified":"2026-01-07T10:50:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:50:03","slug":"today-an-oil-tanker-twofer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=178017","title":{"rendered":"Today- An Oil Tanker Twofer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nMotor Tanker<\/em> Bella 1<\/p>\n

A Venezuela-linked oil tanker operating in the “dark fleet” painted a Russian flag on its hull, changed its name, and reflagged to Russia in an attempt to evade the U.S. Coast Guard, according to reports.<\/p>\n

The vessel was tracked by U.S., U.K., France and Ireland aerial surveillance to the Irish coast after it fled the Caribbean and evaded interception.<\/p>\n

Russia had reportedly deployed a submarine to escort the tanker to its own waters, according to the Wall Street Journal late Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Didn’t much matter.<\/p>\n

US military seizes two sanctioned tankers in Atlantic Ocean<\/h3>\n

U.S. forces on Wednesday seized two sanctioned tankers in the Atlantic Ocean.
\nMarinera vessel spent weeks trying to slip past enforcement targeting sanctioned Venezuelan oil shipments<\/em>
\nBy Ashley Carnahan , Jennifer Griffin<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, U.S. European Command (EUCOM) announced the seizure of the Russian-flagged Marinera oil tanker in the North Atlantic Sea.<\/p>\n

“The @TheJusticeDept & @DHSgov, in coordination with the @DeptofWar today announced the seizure of the M\/V Bella 1 for violations of U.S. sanctions,” read a post from EUCOM on X. “The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro.”<\/p>\n

“This seizure supports @POTUS Proclamation targeting sanctioned vessels that threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere,” EUCOM added. “The operation was executed by DHS components with support from @DeptofWar, showcasing a whole-of-government approach to protect the homeland.”<\/p>\n

Fox News previously reported that U.S. forces were attempting to board the Marinera tanker, which previously operated under the name Bella 1, in the North Atlantic earlier Wednesday morning.
\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\nLater Wednesday morning, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the separate seizure of another oil tanker, the M\/T Sophia, in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

“In a pre-dawn action this morning, the Department of War, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker without incident,” SOUTHCOM said.<\/p>\n

It added that the interdicted vessel was conducting “illicit activities” in the Caribbean and is being escorted by the U.S. Coast Guard to the United States for “final disposition.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fox News<\/a><\/p>\n

Add another asset or two to Trump’s growing tanker fleet. The Russians will howl of course, just as they protested Maduro’s capture as an invasion of a foreign country. I guess “irony” doesn’t translate well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motor Tanker Bella 1 A Venezuela-linked oil tanker operating in the “dark fleet” painted a Russian … Today- An Oil Tanker Twofer<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":178018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/178018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}