#maritime-interdiction

#maritime-interdiction

President Donald Trump is gathering with top national security officials on Monday, a meeting that comes as the U.S. Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration's escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan are scheduled to join Trump, who is vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort,

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.

The U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker has been described as a " significant," even " dramatic," escalation of President Donald Trump's campaign to pressure Nicolás Maduro, the country's dictator, out of office-but this isn't quite the case. The seizure might serve as part of a rationale for regime change, which Trump has been advocating, in part through aggressive rhetoric, in part by deploying military forces to the Caribbean, including more than 15,000 troops and a dozen warships, including an aircraft carrier.

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.

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.