The United States has intercepted the third and final oil tanker that fled Venezuelan waters for the Indian Ocean in early 2026, again underscoring the mission of the U.S. and its Allies and Partners to disrupt illicit maritime activity linked to sanctioned states and actors.
U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarded the MT Bertha in the Indian Ocean in late February 2026. The tanker operated in defiance of the U.S. quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It was one of three oil tankers that U.S. forces tracked from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean after the vessels fled in January 2026 when U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s then president and his wife to face cocaine conspiracy and weapons possession charges in the U.S.
“Three boats ran and now all three have been captured,” the U.S. Department of War said. “From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it. No other nation has the global reach, endurance or will to enforce sanctions at this distance. International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned actors.”
The MT Bertha has been under U.S. sanctions for several years and is part of the so-called dark fleet that transports sanctioned oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela. Russia uses its oil exports to finance its war against Ukraine. Iran is sanctioned because its exports are used to fund terrorism and develop Tehran’s nuclear program.
Iran and Russia try to circumvent sanctions by relying on fleets of aging tankers to transport petroleum. The vessels use false documentation, manipulate vessel tracking systems, and change their names and flags, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
Allies and Partners have joined the U.S. in enforcing sanctions on such vessels. India, for instance, seized three U.S.-sanctioned tankers linked to Iran in mid-February 2026. New Delhi also increased maritime surveillance to curb illicit trade and prevent its waters from being used for ship-to-ship transfers. The oil-smuggling syndicate “exploited mid-sea transfers in international waters to move cheap oil from conflict ridden regions to motor tankers, evading duties owed to coastal states,” the Indian Coast Guard said.
India’s seizure “marks a pivot toward selective alignment with U.S.-led sanctions enforcement,” Brahma Chellaney, professor emeritus of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, stated on social media. “That it came on the very day Washington unveiled a framework trade deal with New Delhi underscores India’s readiness to enforce U.S. sanctions in its own maritime backyard.”
Belgium announced in early March 2026 that it had seized a suspected Russian dark fleet tanker in the North Sea. Belgian forces, assisted by French helicopters, boarded the ship in a clandestine operation, said Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken, according to The Guardian newspaper.
The tanker, identified as the Ethera, was falsely flying the flag of Guinea and was believed to be heading to Russia when it was seized in Belgium’s exclusive economic zone, the newspaper reported.
French authorities intercepted the oil tanker Grinch in the Mediterranean Sea in January 2026 and diverted it to the French city of Marseille on suspicion of transporting Russian oil. The tanker was released after its owner paid a fine of several million dollars, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in mid-February.
“Circumventing European sanctions comes at a price,” Barrot stated. “Russia will no longer be able to finance its war with impunity through a ghost fleet off our coasts.”