The U.S. Coast Guard is waiting for specialized forces to arrive before deciding whether to board and seize a Venezuela-linked oil tanker it has been pursuing for several days, underscoring the strain on the service as Washington intensifies pressure on Caracas, according to officials cited by Reuters.
The tanker, identified by maritime groups as the Bella 1, has refused to allow Coast Guard personnel to board since the pursuit began on Sunday. According to a U.S. official and a source familiar with the matter, the Coast Guard is now awaiting the arrival of one of its highly trained Maritime Security Response Teams, which are among the few units capable of forcibly boarding vessels, including by rappelling from helicopters.
Reuters reported that the standoff highlights a growing mismatch between the Trump administration’s aggressive policy of seizing sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela and the limited operational resources of the Coast Guard, the agency primarily tasked with carrying out such law enforcement actions at sea.
Unlike the U.S. Navy, which lacks domestic law enforcement authority, the Coast Guard has the legal power to board and seize vessels that violate U.S. sanctions. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump ordered what he described as a “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, part of a renewed effort to isolate President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
The Coast Guard has already seized two oil tankers near Venezuela in recent weeks. After the first operation on Dec. 10, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a video showing armed personnel descending from helicopters onto a ship. A subsequent social media post by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard, showed officers preparing aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford before seizing another tanker, the Centuries.
However, a U.S. official told Reuters that the Maritime Security Response Team aboard the Gerald Ford was too far away at the time to conduct a boarding of the Bella 1. Maritime security experts say such delays are not unusual given the limited number of teams trained for high-risk boardings. Corey Ranslem, chief executive of Dryad Global and a former Coast Guard officer, told Reuters that only a small number of units are qualified for these complex operations.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Reuters said it could not determine whether other factors have contributed to the delay. U.S. officials have acknowledged that the administration could ultimately decide not to seize the vessel. The White House said the United States remains in “active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion.”
The episode comes as the United States deploys substantial military assets to the Caribbean, including an aircraft carrier, fighter jets and additional warships. According to a separate source cited by Reuters, Osprey aircraft and MC-130J Commando II planes have recently arrived in Puerto Rico. The Coast Guard, by contrast, has far fewer assets at its disposal.
The service has long warned that it lacks sufficient resources to meet its expanding list of responsibilities, from search and rescue to counter-narcotics missions. In November, it reported seizing about 49,000 pounds of drugs worth more than $362 million in the eastern Pacific.
Admiral Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s commandant, told lawmakers in June that the service faces a severe readiness crisis decades in the making. While the Coast Guard requested $14.6 billion for the fiscal year ending in September 2026 and will receive an additional $25 billion under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Lunday has warned that readiness remains at its lowest point since World War II, raising questions about how long the service can sustain its expanding role in high-risk enforcement operations.
