{"id":22954,"date":"2026-01-07T20:02:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=22954"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:02:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:02:58","slug":"u-s-seizes-venezuela-linked-tankers-bella-i-and-sophia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=22954","title":{"rendered":"U.S. seizes Venezuela-linked tankers Bella I and Sophia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    U.S. seizes Venezuela-linked tankers Bella I and Sophia<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    <!-- no image --><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In a post on X, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says that in two predawn operations today, the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two \u201cghost fleet\u201d tanker ships\u2014 one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean. Both vessels \u2014the motor tanker<em> Bella I <\/em>and the motor taker <em>Sophia<\/em>\u2014were either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignleft is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In two predawn operations today, the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two \u201cghost fleet\u201d\u00a0 tanker ships\u2014 one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean.\u00a0 Both vessels \u2014the Motor Tanker Bella I and the Motor\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EZlHEtcufX\">pic.twitter.com\/EZlHEtcufX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sec_Noem\/status\/2008907194691915945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 7, 2026<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOne of these tankers, motor tanker <em>Bella I,<\/em> has been trying to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, even changing its flag and painting a new name on the hull while being pursued, in a desperate and failed attempt to escape justice. The heroic crew of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/news\/uscg-awards-huntington-ingalls-contract-for-nsc-6\/\">USCGC <em>Munro <\/em><\/a>pursued this vessel across the high seas and through treacherous storms\u2014 keeping diligent watch, and protecting our country with the determination and patriotism that make Americans proud. These brave men and women deserve our nation\u2019s thanks for their selfless devotion to duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.K. Ministry of Defence saids=hat, at the request of the U.S., the U<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DefenceHQ\/status\/2008940834310283717?s=20\">.K. provided enabling support for the interdiction of the <em>Bella I<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>between the U.K. and Iceland, that included basing for U.S. military assets, Royal Air Force surveillance and support from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel RFA Tideforce<\/p>\n<p>According to multiple reports, at some point during its pursuit, the B<em>ella I <\/em>changed its name to the <em>Marinera <\/em>and its registration to the Russian flag.<\/p>\n<p>Southern Command said<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Southcom\/status\/2008905619424620879?s=20\"> in a post on <\/a>X that the interdicted vessel, M\/T <em>Sophia,<\/em> was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is escorting M\/T <em>Sophia <\/em>to the U.S. for final disposition.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/news\/u-s-seizes-venezuela-linked-tankers-bella-i-and-sophia\/\">U.S. seizes Venezuela-linked tankers Bella I and Sophia<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/\">Marine Log<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    Nick Blenkey<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/news\/u-s-seizes-venezuela-linked-tankers-bella-i-and-sophia\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=u-s-seizes-venezuela-linked-tankers-bella-i-and-sophia\">Go to marinelog<\/a><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. seizes Venezuela-linked tankers Bella I and Sophia In a post on X, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says that in two predawn operations today, the Coast Guard conducted back-to-back meticulously coordinated boarding of two \u201cghost fleet\u201d tanker ships\u2014 one in the North Atlantic Sea and one in international waters near the Caribbean. Both [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7621,4693,192,199,7622,7623,1920],"tags":[193],"class_list":["post-22954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bella-i","category-kristi-noem","category-marinelog","category-news","category-sophia","category-tanker-seizures","category-venezuela","tag-marinelog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22954"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}