A U.S. court on Friday released a heavily redacted warrant authorizing the seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast, a move Caracas denounced as “international piracy” and “blatant theft.”
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has been piling pressure on Venezuela for months, with a major naval buildup in the region accompanied by deadly strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that have killed nearly 90 people.
In a dramatic raid on Wednesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said was aimed at Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro's "regime," Washington took control of the tanker with U.S. forces rappelling down from a helicopter onto the vessel.
The U.S. Coast Guard carried out the warrant, signed by a magistrate judge on Nov. 26, just as it was set to expire, according to the 32-page document that has more than half of its contents redacted.
The Justice Department said the vessel, dubbed the M/T Skipper and formerly called the Adisa, was used to transport the sanctioned fuel "in an oil shipping network supporting" Iran-backed Hezbollah and a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, both designated by the U.S. State Department as "foreign terrorist organizations".
