The U.S. has seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday (Jan. 7), after pursuing it for more than two weeks across the Atlantic as part of Washington’s efforts to block Venezuelan oil exports, U.S. officials said.

It appeared to be the first time in recent memory that the U.S. military has seized a Russian-flagged vessel.

The Marinera, originally known as the Bella-1, had previously slipped through a U.S. maritime blockade of sanctioned tankers in the Caribbean and rebuffed U.S. Coast Guard efforts to board it. Wednesday’s seizure effort, in the Atlantic near Iceland, was first reported by Reuters.

In a post on X, the U.S. military’s European Command said the Trump administration had seized the vessel for violating U.S. sanctions.

“The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in reply to that post.

Two U.S. officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that today’s operation was carried out by the Coast Guard and the U.S. military. U.S. special forces initially helped secure the tanker but left the vessel, which was now under Coast Guard control, one of the officials said.