The United States says that its forces seized another tanker in the Caribbean, the seventh ship apprehended since US President Donald Trump announced a blockade to prevent sanctioned vessels going to or from Venezuela.

The US military’s Southern Command said the ship, identified as the Motor Vessel Sagitta, was “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels” and was seized “without incident”.

“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” the command said in a post on X that included a clip showing an overhead view of a ship at sea.

Among the seven ships seized since the US President announced the blockade in December was a Russia-linked tanker apprehended in the North Atlantic earlier this month after being pursued by the United States from off the coast of Venezuela.

Washington has deployed a huge naval force in the Caribbean, striking boats it says were used for drug trafficking, seizing tankers and carrying out a stunning operation to seize Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.

Trump has insisted that Washington will control Venezuela’s oil after Maduro’s ouster, boasting that he had already seized and sold some of it.

Venezuelan authorities dispute this, saying that Caracas remains in control of the country’s oil and that the state-run oil company is in negotiations with the United States over the sale of oil.

- Agence France-Presse