WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military forces boarded another sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the vessel from the Caribbean Sea in an effort to target illicit oil connected to Venezuela, the Pentagon said Sunday.
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. President Donald Trump ordered a quarantine of sanctioned tankers in December to pressure then-President Nicolás Maduro before Maduro was apprehended in January during an American military operation.
Several tankers fled the Venezuelan coast in the wake of the raid, including the ship that was boarded in the Indian Ocean overnight. The Defense Department said in a post on X that U.S. forces boarded the Veronica III, conducting “a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding.”
“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away,” the Pentagon said. “We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down.”
Video posted by the Pentagon shows U.S. troops boarding the tanker.
The Veronica III is a Panamanian-flagged vessel under U.S. sanctions related to Iran, according to the website of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Panama Maritime Authority said Sunday in a brief statement that the ship was no longer registered there and had been canceled in December 2024.
The Veronica III left Venezuela on Jan. 3, the same day as Maduro's capture, with nearly 2 million barrels of crude and fuel oil, TankerTrackers.com posted Sunday on X.
“Since 2023, she’s been involved with Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil,” the organization said.
Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, told The Associated Press in January that his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine.
The Trump administration has been seizing tankers as part of its broader efforts to take control of the Venezuela's oil. The Pentagon did not say in the post whether the Veronica III was formally seized and placed under U.S. control, and later told the AP in an email that it had no additional information to provide beyond that post.
Last week, the U.S. military boarded a different tanker in the Indian Ocean, the Aquila II. The ship was being held while its ultimate fate was decided by the United States, according to a defense official who spoke last week on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing decision-making.
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Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Alma Solís in Panama City contributed to this report.
FILE - The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Sept. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FIle)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter fired pistols during an inspection of a light munitions factory, state media photos showed Thursday, as he pushes to modernize conventional forces after years of focus on nuclear weapons.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim visited a factory producing pistols and other light arms a day earlier and reviewed a new pistol that recently entered production.
After testing the weapon at a shooting range, Kim rated it “excellent,” the agency said. The agency did not mention the presence of Kim’s daughter in its text report but its photos showed her firing a pistol along with senior military officials.
Kim said the factory was crucial for supplying pistols and other light arms to the military and security forces, and urged expanded capacity and more modern production lines, KCNA said.
Since first appearing in public at a long-range missile test in November 2022, Kim’s daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and about 13 — has accompanied her father to a growing number of events, including military displays, factory openings and a September trip to Beijing, where Kim Jong Un held his first summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in six years.
Her increasingly prominent public appearances have prompted South Korean intelligence officials and experts to assess that Kim Jong Un is likely grooming her as a future leader to extend the family dynasty into a fourth generation.
State media last month showed the girl testing a sniper rifle as Kim presented the weapons to senior officials following a ruling party congress where he issued his major political and military goals for the next five years.
The visit to the pistol factory followed an inspection Tuesday in which Kim and his daughter watched the test launch of what state media described as nuclear-capable cruise missiles from a naval destroyer as Kim called for speeding up the nuclear armament of his navy.
Find more of AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, right, and his daughter visit a factory producing pistols and other light arms at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, March 11, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un's daughter, center, tries out a new pistol at a factory producing pistols and other light arms at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, March 11, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un tries out a new pistol at a factory producing pistols and other light arms at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, March 11, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
This photo provided by the North Korean government shows its leader Kim Jong Un, right, and his daughter, left, watch what it says the cruise missiles launches from the naval destroyer, the Choe Hyon, via video Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
