The Trump administration has seized the cargo of four tankers it was targeting for transporting Iranian fuel to Venezuela, U.S. Officials said Thursday, as it steps up its campaign of maximum pressure against the two heavily sanctioned allies.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Washington filed a civil forfeiture complaint alleging that the sale was arranged by a businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
At the time, sanctions experts thought it would be impossible to enforce the U.S. Court order in international waters.
A senior U.S. Official told The Associated Press that no military force was used in the seizures and that the ships weren’t physically confiscated.
Rather, US Officials threatened ship owners, insurers and captains with sanction to force them to hand over their cargo, which now becomes US Property, the official said. Prosecutors alleged the 4 ships were transporting to Venezuela 1.1 million barrels of gasoline. But the tankers never arrived at the South American country and then went missing.
