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WASHINGTON — <\/span>U.S. military forces boarded a third sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Tuesday.<\/p>\n U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Bertha overnight, conducting \u201ca right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.” <\/p>\n \u201cThe vessel was operating in defiance of President Trump\u2019s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean and attempted to evade,\u201d the post said. \u201cFrom the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it.\u201d <\/p>\n Venezuela had faced U.S. sanctions on its oil for several years, relying on a shadow fleet of falsely flagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains<\/a>. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure Venezuela’s then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation. <\/p>\n The Bertha is a vessel flagged to the Cook Islands and is under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control. <\/p>\n Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. military helicopters flying toward the tanker. <\/p>\n Trump’s Republican administration has been seizing tankers<\/a> as part of its broader efforts to take control of Venezuela’s oil<\/a>. The Pentagon\u2019s post did not state whether the Bertha was formally seized and placed under U.S. control. <\/p>\n Maduro was brought to the U.S. to face charges<\/a> of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine<\/a> into the U.S. and has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n