The U.S. military caught and boarded an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean in violation of a U.S. quarantine.
“Overnight, U.S. military forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding on the Aquila II without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility,” the Department of War wrote on social media. “The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean. It ran, and we followed. The Department of War tracked and hunted this vessel from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. No other nation on planet Earth has the capability to enforce its will through any domain. By land, air, or sea, our Armed Forces will find you and deliver justice. You will run out of fuel long before you will outrun us.”
The Department added that it will “deny illicit actors and their proxies the ability to defy American power in the global maritime domain.”
The Aquila II was sanctioned by the Department of the Treasury in January.
The military previously seized two oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean. “The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the U.S. for final disposition,” the U.S. Southern Command said in a January statement. “Through Operation Southern Spear, the Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere,” the statement continued. “We will defend our Homeland and restore security and strength across the Americas.”
