{"id":178017,"date":"2026-01-07T10:47:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=178017"},"modified":"2026-01-07T10:50:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:50:03","slug":"today-an-oil-tanker-twofer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=178017","title":{"rendered":"Today- An Oil Tanker Twofer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nMotor Tanker<\/em> Bella 1<\/p>\n

A Venezuela-linked oil tanker operating in the “dark fleet” painted a Russian flag on its hull, changed its name, and reflagged to Russia in an attempt to evade the U.S. Coast Guard, according to reports.<\/p>\n

The vessel was tracked by U.S., U.K., France and Ireland aerial surveillance to the Irish coast after it fled the Caribbean and evaded interception.<\/p>\n

Russia had reportedly deployed a submarine to escort the tanker to its own waters, according to the Wall Street Journal late Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Didn’t much matter.<\/p>\n

US military seizes two sanctioned tankers in Atlantic Ocean<\/h3>\n

U.S. forces on Wednesday seized two sanctioned tankers in the Atlantic Ocean.
\nMarinera vessel spent weeks trying to slip past enforcement targeting sanctioned Venezuelan oil shipments<\/em>
\nBy Ashley Carnahan , Jennifer Griffin<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, U.S. European Command (EUCOM) announced the seizure of the Russian-flagged Marinera oil tanker in the North Atlantic Sea.<\/p>\n

“The @TheJusticeDept & @DHSgov, in coordination with the @DeptofWar today announced the seizure of the M\/V Bella 1 for violations of U.S. sanctions,” read a post from EUCOM on X. “The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked by USCGC Munro.”<\/p>\n

“This seizure supports @POTUS Proclamation targeting sanctioned vessels that threaten the security and stability of the Western Hemisphere,” EUCOM added. “The operation was executed by DHS components with support from @DeptofWar, showcasing a whole-of-government approach to protect the homeland.”<\/p>\n

Fox News previously reported that U.S. forces were attempting to board the Marinera tanker, which previously operated under the name Bella 1, in the North Atlantic earlier Wednesday morning.
\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\nLater Wednesday morning, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the separate seizure of another oil tanker, the M\/T Sophia, in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

“In a pre-dawn action this morning, the Department of War, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker without incident,” SOUTHCOM said.<\/p>\n

It added that the interdicted vessel was conducting “illicit activities” in the Caribbean and is being escorted by the U.S. Coast Guard to the United States for “final disposition.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fox News<\/a><\/p>\n

Add another asset or two to Trump’s growing tanker fleet. The Russians will howl of course, just as they protested Maduro’s capture as an invasion of a foreign country. I guess “irony” doesn’t translate well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motor Tanker Bella 1 A Venezuela-linked oil tanker operating in the “dark fleet” painted a Russian flag on its hull, changed its name, and reflagged to Russia in an attempt to evade the U.S. Coast Guard, according to reports. The vessel was tracked by U.S., U.K., France and Ireland aerial surveillance to the Irish coast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":178018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia","category-trump"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tanker.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ozh1-Kjf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/178018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}