Operation Neptune Spear

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Lore & Background

The operation was preceded by escalating US pressure on Venezuela. On 7 August 2025, the US Department of Justice raised a reward for the arrest of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to US$50 million; Maduro was indicted by a US federal court in 2020 and is accused of narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine to the United States. The Trump administration accused the Maduro government of flooding the US with drugs, and pressured Maduro to step down. Over the following months, the US Navy conducted its largest naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. As part of the deployment, the US began launching air strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea in September. By 10 December, the US had carried out 22 air strikes that killed at least 87 people. In March 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14245 that placed a 25% tariff on any country that imported Venezuelan oil due to Venezuela being "very hostile".

In Their Own Story

On 10 December, ten Maritime Security Response Team personnel from the US Coast Guard and ten special operations personnel from the US Marine Corps aboard two helicopters launched from USS Gerald R. Ford boarded and took control of Skipper shortly after it left a Venezuelan port. Skipper had left Puerto José in Venezuela on 4 December with about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil from PDVSA. Soon after its departure, near Curaçao, the tanker offloaded a portion of its oil to another ship, Neptune 6, which was en route to Cuba. Skipper then turned east, headed towards Asia. The oil tanker was in international waters between Grenada and Trinidad when it was boarded by US forces. According to US attorney general Pam Bondi, Skipper was seized in accordance with a seizure warrant issued two weeks earlier by a federal judge for allegedly transporting "sanctioned oil". Bondi posted a short video excerpt of the seizure on X, adding that it was "conducted safely and securely" and was part of an investigation "to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil". According to The New York Times, three anonymous US government officials said Skipper's crew did not resist, there were no casualties, and they expected that more seizures would occur in the following weeks as "part of the administration's efforts to weaken Mr. Maduro's government by undermining its oil market".

Reader's Guide

The operation involved multiple interceptions. On 20 December, the USCG boarded a second ship, the Panama-flagged Centuries, carrying 1.8 million barrels of crude oil off the coast of Venezuela. According to The Washington Post, neither the vessel nor its owner are sanctioned entities, and an unnamed source said the boarding was based on a history of the vessel transporting oil to China, and a "right to visit" law that "allows a warship to board and inspect a vessel it suspects is engaging in illicit activity". Permission to board was obtained from Panama, which later stated that the vessel had violated Panamanian maritime law by turning off its transponder while sailing with crude. The USCG had been pursuing a third VLCC, Bella 1, since 20 December 2025, from the Caribbean through the Atlantic Ocean. The tanker had previously transported Iranian oil, and was en route to load Venezuelan oil purchased by a company associated with the recently-sanctioned Panamanian, Pedro Carretero. The vessel was sanctioned by the US for "allegedly carrying black-market Iranian oil on behalf of ... Hezbollah and the Houthis" and "has links to the Quds Force". Heading for Venezuela with no cargo, the ship's crew resisted boarding on 20 December and the vessel made a U-turn with the USCG in pursuit. A Russian flag was painted on the vessel reported on 31 December in what US officials said was "an apparent attempt to claim protection from Moscow" although "international law stipulates that ships aren't permitted to change their flags mid-voyage unless there is a change of ownership or registration". On that day, Russia sent a request through diplomatic channels to ask the United States to stop its pursuit of the tanker. By 1 January 2026, the vessel appeared on the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping under a new name, Marinera. On 6 January, it was reported that Marinera was being escorted by a Russian submarine and a navy vessel. The United States European Command announced on 7 January 2026, that Marinera had been seized by the USCG cutter Munro in the Atlantic Ocean waters between Iceland and Scotland, traveling northward and eastward.

Did You Know?

• Skipper had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 for alleged involvement in an oil trafficking shadow fleet involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.
• The USCG required a Maritime Special Response Team to intercept a hostile ship, and officials told The Wall Street Journal the team was in place for Bella 1, but because the tanker was old and not carrying oil, there was debate over whether it should be captured.
• The Russian tanker Seahorse, sanctioned by the EU and UK, was forced several times by USS Stockdale to turn back towards Cuba while attempting to deliver naphtha to Venezuela, although it eventually reached Venezuela in November 2025.
• Skipper had a history of issuing false transponder readings from October to December 2025 that falsified the ship's location, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and data from TankerTrackers.com.
• The US had carried out 22 air strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea by 10 December 2025, killing at least 87 people.