The Coast Guard hasn’t boarded the Venezuela-linked oil tanker it’s been chasing for days because it doesn’t have enough ships or boarding teams nearby, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The US has been pursuing the tanker, identified as the Bella 1, since Sunday after spotting it off Venezuela’s coast — but it has refused to allow Coast Guard personnel aboard.
Because of the refusal, forcible seizure is the only option, and it would likely fall to one of just two highly trained Maritime Security Response Teams capable of risky helicopter boardings, including rappelling onto vessels.
Those teams are not yet in position, according to the report, which cited a US official and a source familiar with the matter.
Otherwise, the US would have to abandon its efforts to take the tanker.
President Trump on Monday pledged that Washington would eventually seize the ship. Earlier this month, he ordered a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers tied to Venezuela as pressure mounts on President Nicolás Maduro.
“The United States Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” a White House official told The Post in a statement on Tuesday. “It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.”
Unlike the Navy, the Coast Guard has the legal authority to board and seize sanctioned vessels.
Despite the impedement to tanker the vessel, the White House said on Tuesday that the US is still in “active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.”
So far, the US has seized two oil tankers near Venezuela.
The first tanker that was seized, the Skipper, was allegedly the same “sanctioned shadow vessel known for carrying black-market sanctioned oil” to Iran, according to White House officials.
On Dec. 10, US Attorney General Pam Bondi shared a video showing a highly-trained team of camo-clad soldiers in action as they rappelled down onto the Skipper from a low-flying helicopter.
On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security shared additional footage showing officers preparing to depart from the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier shortly before they seized the Centuries tanker.
A US official told Reuters that the team seen in Saturday’s video was the Maritime Security Response Team.
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The Coast Guard’s budget pales in comparison to its Navy counterpart, but is set to receive an extra $25 billion in funds through Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on top of the branch’s requested $14.6 billion.
Coast Guard Admiral Kevin Lunday highlighted the force’s “severe readiness crisis” during a meeting with lawmakers earlier this year. He claimed the plight was “decades in the making.”
“Our Coast Guard is less ready than in any other time in the past 80 years since the end of World War Two. The downward readiness spiral we are on is not sustainable,” Lunday said.
