#maritime-interdiction

#maritime-interdiction

US Southern Command said in a statement that Marines and sailors, working in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and captured the tanker, Olina, "without incident." It appears to be the first time that the US has directly acknowledged the Ford's involvement in the five boarding and seizure operations that began in early December. However, the government has indicated that the carrier was used for at least one of the other missions.

U.S. military forces have tracked and intercepted a Russian-flagged oil tanker in international waters that had tried to circumvent Washington's blockade on Venezuelan crude exports, the U.S. military's European command confirmed on Wednesday. After a chase that lasted two weeks, the oil tanker was intercepted in North Atlantic waters near Iceland in a joint operation between the Coast Guard and the U.S. military, Reuters reported.

The shadow fleet used by Russia, Iran and Venezuela to avoid western sanctions and ship cargo to customers including China and India is exploding in its scale and scope, and there are concerns that efforts to counter it are drawing closer to dangerous military confrontations. Complicating the issue is that Russia has begun putting its own flag on some former shadow fleet tankers, in an open challenge to Europe.

Listen, you're once again making assumptions, Mullin said. That's not even kind of accurate, I don't believe. All we're doing is talking about an assumption. This isn't been proven. It hasn't been said it was actually true. Mullin added, In this particular situation, you're talking about, once again, is alleged over an anonymous source, which the media is really good about, always trying to name some anonymous source. And then they make a big deal about it as though it's true.

No, they go against all of our tradition. You know, when you kill someone, if you're not at warnot in a declared waryou really need to know someone's name at least. You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime,

To put this into perspective, the potential 23m lethal doses of cocaine seized by the US coast guard and our partners are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, underscoring the immense threat posed by transnational drug trafficking to our nation, said R Adm Adam Chamie, commander of the branch's south-east district. This represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations, highlighting our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the nation from illicit trafficking and its devastating impacts, Chamie said.