Posted on 01/07/2026 7:54:11 AM PST by Red Badger
The U.S. on Wednesday seized a rogue Russian-flagged tanker linked to Venezuelan oil in the North Atlantic Sea.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had earlier announced another seizure in a social media post.
“In two predawn operations today, the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two ‘ghost fleet’ tanker ships — one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean,” she posted.
Noem said the Motor Tanker M/V Bella I (later renamed the Marinera and reflagged as Russian) and the Motor Tanker Sophia were either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.
U.S. European Command confirmed the stop-and-board apprehension of the sanctioned ship Bella 1 after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic.
The stateless ship – originally known as the M/V Bella-1 – is the latest to be targeted by the U.S. Coast Guard since the start of President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela.
The seizure of the ship, which evaded being boarded near Venezuela, was a joint operation between the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. military personnel, the U.S. European Command, which is responsible for the region, said in a post on X.
The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Like was said on an earlier thread: Kristi is hot
Wow...the ship is confusing, though.
“Stateless,” but Russian-flagged. “Rogue” and “Ghost Ship.” Can it be all those at once?
Don’t figure the Commies will take kindly to this little incident...But a good World War might be a good thing to thin out the herd.
Your move, Putie.
“Flag of convenience”
It’s part of a shadow fleet.
a) reflagging an empty tanker and sending a Russian sub as an escort suggest it's not about the oil;
b) the route away from the ME and towards the northern course to Murmansk avoiding the Baltic and US Navy presence in the ME also suggest something odd about this ship;
OSINT suggests the ship is carrying small but high value targets like Russian intel officers and/or spy equipment or munitions that Russia does not want the US to get.
Well, isn’t this interesting...
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/breaking-british-forces-back-raid-36513390
Is the UK still importing Russian energy...?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Even more reason to seize it
I guess the far-left “media’s” threats of a Russki escort submarine didn’t work out, huh?
Why would an oil tanker be headed to Russia? They are a net oil exporter. It’s like the old British saying: carrying coal to Newcastle..........
“Russia is never as strong, or as weak, as she appears.” — Bismark.
“But a good World War might be a good thing to thin out the herd.”
You wish.... like the jab hasn’t done enough damage to humanity already.
It isn’t Russian flagged, it was Guyana flagged and the crew just lamely tried to paint a crude mural on the side of the ship of the Russian flag. It isn’t actually registered as Russian.
It has been running with its transponder off.
it is a piece of junk that was used in 2024 to smuggle oil and also to smuggle an undisclosed amount of cargo for Hezbollah.
A while back a shadow fleet cargo ship actually sank and turned out to have two housings for nuclear reactors or actual reactors on board .
This is a motor tanker and appears to be empty …but could still have something or someone of interest on board.
That rumor and others circulating on Reddit earlier. Russia supposedly had new guidance system for S300/400 in Venezuela. True? False? No idea.
I think it did make a stop in Cuba unless it was the other tanker.
Maybe...2020 election manipulation documents/hardware?
My son says that stateless or ghost ships fly a flag for a country like Russia without actually doing the paperwork to actually make them legal in the hopes of staying under the radar, i.e. most countries are unwilling to mess with a Russian flagged ship, but if anyone bothers to actually check, they are not registered and any documents they have are forged.
And that’s how they are all four of those things at once.
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