The oil tanker seized by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela had been deceiving authorities about its location for months, turning off its tracking transponder and falsifying position data to hide its movements between Iran, China, and Venezuela while carrying sanctioned oil.
But the vessel, named The Skipper, was already on U.S. government watchlists after being sanctioned in 2022 for alleged ties to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, according to U.S. officials and maritime tracking data.
The U.S. Coast Guard seized the tanker on December 11, 2025, with helicopter-borne teams storming the vessel in a raid launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, according to a U.S. official.
President Donald Trump confirmed the seizure, saying “We keep it, I guess” when asked what would happen to the oil aboard.
Years of sanctions evasion
The Skipper, originally named Adisa, was sanctioned in 2022 along with its registered owner Triton Navigation Corporation for alleged connections to Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, according to U.S. Treasury records.
The vessel’s beneficial owner is listed as Thomarose Global Ventures.
Despite the sanctions, The Skipper continued operating throughout 2025 on routes known for sanctions evasion, according to satellite imagery analysis by commercial tracking firms.
Hiding at sea through ‘dark activity’
Matt Smith, an analyst at maritime analytics company Kpler, said The Skipper had engaged in what he called “dark activity” — a reference to ships operating without their transponder switched on.
In mid-November, the vessel “covertly” loaded 1.1 million barrels of heavy sour Merey crude at Venezuela’s José Oil Terminal without its transponder switched on, Smith said in a statement.
Satellite imagery captured by Planet Labs and TankerTrackers.com showed The Skipper continuously off the coast of Barcelona, Venezuela, between October 30 and December 4, 2025.
Location spoofing exposed
An analysis of satellite imagery and tracking data by ABC News and BBC Verify showed The Skipper manipulated its location data throughout late 2025.
Digital broadcast signals from the vessel’s transponder, tracked by Kpler, placed The Skipper near Guyana’s offshore waters between November and December 2025.
However, more than a dozen satellite images verified by ABC News and captured by Planet Labs and TankerTrackers.com confirmed the vessel was actually operating in waters off Barcelona, Venezuela, around 550 miles away during the same period.
Citing a “pattern of deliberate obfuscation,” Dimitris Ampatzidis, a senior risk and compliance manager at Kpler, told ABC News the allegedly “spoofed signals” indicate “a broader pattern of sanctions evasion logistics.”
Iran-China-Venezuela route
TankerTrackers.com identified The Skipper’s movements between Iran and China from March to September 2025 in an extensive analysis of satellite imagery.
The site estimates that The Skipper carried 1.87 million barrels of oil from Iran to China in February 2025, and another 1.95 million barrels from Iran to China in July 2025.
The tanker was spotted off the coast of Madagascar in October before making its way across the Atlantic Ocean.
It was spotted again north of Trinidad and approaching Venezuela on October 29, before spending over a month off the coast of Barcelona loading Venezuelan crude.
How the U.S. found it
While the U.S. government has not disclosed specific detection methods, commercial satellite tracking services played a key role in exposing the vessel’s activities.
Companies like TankerTrackers.com, Planet Labs, and Kpler routinely monitor sanctioned vessels using Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery that can penetrate clouds and operate at night.
These services cross-reference Automatic Identification System transponder data with actual satellite photographs to detect location spoofing, according to their published methodologies.
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, deployed to the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear, was operating in the area with extensive radar and reconnaissance capabilities at the time of the seizure.
The seizure helicopters came from the USS Gerald R. Ford, indicating the carrier group was tracking the tanker, according to a U.S. official.
The raid
U.S. Coast Guard teams descending from helicopters with guns drawn stormed the ship on December 11, 2025, according to footage released by U.S. authorities.
A U.S. official confirmed the helicopters came from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which has been positioned in the Caribbean since mid-November as part of Operation Southern Spear.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi described the vessel as a “crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.”
BBC Verify confirmed the ship’s identity by matching signage seen in U.S. government footage to reference photos supplied by TankerTrackers.com.
Part of broader Venezuela crackdown
The seizure represents the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism by U.S. authorities.
President Trump said Maduro’s “days are numbered” in an interview published December 10, and declined to rule out a ground invasion of Venezuela.
The White House has deployed approximately 10,000 to 16,000 troops to the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear, including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, according to military officials.
Since early September, U.S. forces have conducted strikes on at least 21 vessels the administration claims were trafficking drugs, killing more than 80 suspects.
Market reaction
Oil prices rose slightly following reports of the seizure, with U.S. crude oil up 28 cents to $58.53 per barrel and Brent crude up 31 cents to $62.25 per barrel.
“Shippers will likely be much more cautious and hesitant about loading Venezuelan crude going forward,” said Smith, the oil analyst at Kpler.
Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, currently exporting approximately 749,000 barrels per day, with at least half going to China, according to Kpler.
Growing problem of ‘shadow fleets’
Location spoofing has become a common tactic among vessels transporting oil from sanctioned countries like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, according to maritime security researchers.
Vessels manipulate their Automatic Identification System signals to falsify their location, or turn off their transponders entirely to operate “dark.”
These deceptive practices not only provide cover for potentially illegal activity but also jeopardize safety at sea by increasing the risk of collisions and oil spills, according to maritime safety authorities.
Maritime tracking organizations have documented increasing cases of AIS manipulation as sanctions on Russian, Iranian, and Venezuelan oil have expanded, according to reports by SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch.
