Watch: Video shows moment US forces 'apprehend' oil tanker; Venezuela calls seizure 'theft and kidnapping'

The United States "apprehended" an oil tanker off Venezuela on Saturday, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure.

Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the seizure in a social media post, saying Department of Defense support had enabled the pre-dawn operation carried out by the Coast Guard. She added that the tanker had last made port in Venezuela.


"In a pre-dawn action early this morning on December 20, the US Coast Guard with the support of the Department of War apprehended an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela," Noem said.

She posted a seven-minute video of the operation, which shows US helicopters landing on the deck of a ship with the name Centuries written on the side.

" The United States will continue to pursue the illicit movement of sanctioned oil that is used to fund narco terrorism in the region. We will find you, and we will stop you. Thank you to our brave men and women of the @USCG
and @DeptofWar," she added.
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Meanwhile, Venezuelan officials on Saturday condemned the "theft and kidnapping" of an oil tanker. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said that "these acts will not go unpunished." And aded that "those responsible for these serious events will answer to justice and to history for their criminal conduct."

This is the second sanctioned vessel seized by the United States. On December 10, an elite US Coast Guard tactical operations team, with the support of US Navy helicopters, boarded and seized The Skipper, an oil tanker sanctioned for being part of an illicit oil operation involving Venezuela.

President Donald Trump threatened this week to impose a blockade on all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela, ratcheting up American pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime. “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his social media platform. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.”

Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil and that Trump’s “intention” is regime change. “This will just not happen, never, never, never -- Venezuela will never be a colony of anything or anyone, never,” he said.