US military intercepts oil tanker 'hunted' from Caribbean to Indian Ocean

"Overnight, U.S. military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident in the [Indo-Pacific Command] area of responsibility," the Pentagon said

Published: February 9, 2026 1:41pm

The U.S. military announced Monday that it intercepted an oil tanker that it had "hunted" from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean.

"Overnight, U.S. military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident in the [Indo-Pacific Command] area of responsibility," the Pentagon posted on X.

"The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed. The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean," the department continued.

"No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain. By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice. You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us. The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies the ability to defy American power in the global maritime domain."

The tanker left Venezuela after U.S. forces captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, on Jan. 3, according to TankerTrackers.com.

The ship was partially laden, and her "zombie alias at the time was 'CAPE BALDER,'" TankerTrackers.com posted on X on Monday.

The U.S. military has seized at least seven oil tankers in the Caribbean as the Trump administration continues to enforce its quarantine of sanctioned vessels, The Hill news outlet reported.

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