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The US Coast Guard is currently awaiting the arrival of specialist teams before it can potentially board and seize the ship Venezuela-Joined together oil tanker According to an official and a source familiar with the matter, she has been working on it since Sunday.
vesselThe ship, identified by maritime groups as Bella 1, has reportedly refused attempts by the Coast Guard to board it.
This complex task will likely be entrusted to one of only two specialist units, known as Maritime Safety Response Teams (MSRT), who are trained to board ships in such circumstances, including rappelling from helicopters.
This multi-day search highlights the disparity between trump Due to the administration’s stated ambition to seize sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela and the Coast Guard’s limited operational resources, the agency was primarily tasked with carrying out these operations.
Unlike the US Navy, the Coast Guard has law enforcement authority, enabling it to board and seize ships under US sanctions.
Earlier this month, Trump ordered a “blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, marking the latest move by Washington to increase pressure on the Venezuelan president. Nicolas MaduroThe Coast Guard has successfully seized two oil tankers near Venezuela in recent weeks, After the first seizure on December 10, the Attorney General palm bondi A 45-second video was shared, which shows two helicopters approaching a ship with armed personnel in camouflage on its deck.
A social media post from Department of Homeland Securitywhich oversees the Coast Guard, showed Saturday that Coast Guard officers aboard the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier were preparing to depart and seize the Centuries. tankerSecond ship boarded by the US.
However, a US official, speaking anonymously, clarified that the Coast Guard personnel on board the Ford were from MSRT, but were too far away from Bella 1 at the time to conduct a boarding operation.
“There are a limited number of teams that are trained for this type of boarding,” said Corey Ranslem, chief executive and former member of the maritime security group Dryad Global. US Coast Guard,
The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to requests for comment, and it is unclear what other factors, if any, prevented the Coast Guard from seizing the ship. Ultimately, the administration could choose not to board the ship and seize it.
The White House confirmed that the United States is still “actively pursuing a sanctioned Dark Fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.”
Despite being a branch of the armed forces, the U.S. Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security. While the United States has amassed a substantial military presence in the Caribbean, including an aircraft carrier, fighter jets, and other warships, Coast Guard resources in the region are significantly less.
The service has consistently been highlighted as lacking sufficient resources to effectively manage its expanding list of missions, including search and rescue operations and drug interdiction. In November, the Coast Guard announced it had seized nearly 49,000 pounds of drugs in the eastern Pacific, worth more than $362 million.
“The Coast Guard is in a serious readiness crisis that has been decades in the making,” Admiral Kevin Lunde, who leads the Coast Guard, informed lawmakers in June. For the fiscal year ending September 2026, the Coast Guard requested $14.6 billion in funding. It would receive an additional $25 billion through sweeping spending and tax legislation, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Lunde warned earlier this year, “Our Coast Guard is less prepared than at any other time in the last 80 years, since the end of World War II. The decline in our readiness is unsustainable.”