WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) – U.S. military forces have captured a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking it from Caribbean waters, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, adding that it was the third such interdiction.
In a post on X, the U.S. Department of Defense said its forces boarded the Bertha overnight. It accused the crude oil tanker of seeking to defy Iran-related sanctions.
The Bertha, which flies under a Cook Islands flag, is linked to Shanghai Legendary Ship Management Company Limited and falls under sanctions imposed in January 2020, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The vessel’s last reported position on AIS ship-tracking was on February 24, sailing in the Indian Ocean off the Maldives, according to MarineTraffic data.
“Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Bertha without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. The vessel was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean and attempted to evade,” the Pentagon wrote. “From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it.”
“Three boats ran and now all three have been captured,” the Pentagon added, but gave no other details.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. military forces had boarded the Suezmax tanker Aquila II.
In January, the U.S. seized the Venezuelan-linked crude oil tanker Marinera.
U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the Defense Department to rename itself the Department of War, a change that will require action by Congress.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Jonathan Saul; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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