US seizes multi-million-barrel Iranian fuel shipment bound for Venezuela
The US government has seized more than a million barrels of Iranian fuel contained in four tanker ships bound for Venezuela.
The US government seized more than a million barrels of Iranian fuel contained in four tanker ships bound for Venezuela, the Department of Justice announced Friday. It's Washington’s largest confiscation of Iranian fuel so far.
The seizure comes just over a month after federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, filed a confiscation suit for the cargo of the four ships: the Luna, the Pandi, the Bella and the Bering.
The United States is engaged in campaigns to isolate both Iran and Venezuela economically, which has led the two countries to closer cooperation.
US authorities “successfully executed the seizure order and confiscated the cargo from all four vessels, totaling approximately 1.116 million barrels of petroleum,” the Justice Department said in a press release. “With the assistance of foreign partners, this seized property is now in US custody.”
