U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. forces seized The Skipper — a 332–333 meter tanker formerly known as Adisa and sanctioned in 2022 for links to an IRGC/Hezbollah oil network — in a helicopter-borne, fast-rope boarding led by the Coast Guard MSRT with Navy support from USS Gerald R. Ford; a federal seizure warrant signed Nov. 26 by Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui and obtained under a statute permitting seizure of assets tied to planning or perpetrating federal terrorism offenses was unsealed and shows the vessel was taken just before the warrant expired. The Skipper was carrying roughly 1.8–2 million barrels of heavy crude (about half alleged to belong to a Cuban state importer), U.S. officials say the cargo will be subject to forfeiture and brought to a U.S. port, and Venezuela has denounced the move as “piracy.”

The Coast Guard cutter Munro seized about 20,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific — which the service called the largest at-sea interdiction in more than 18 years — after a Coast Guard helicopter crew disabled a non‑compliant go‑fast vessel, video released by the service shows. The action was part of Operation Pacific Viper, which the Coast Guard says has seized over 150,000 pounds of cocaine (an estimated value exceeding $1.1 billion) since August, with JIATF‑South handling detection and the Coast Guard conducting interdictions and seizures. The service did not disclose the fate of people seen aboard the interdicted vessel, and the operation comes amid broader scrutiny over recent lethal maritime strikes.