U.S. military helicopters descended early Wednesday on a rogue oil tanker trying to escape the blockade of Venezuelan oil exports. Using a false Guyana flag and spoofed location data, the Bella 1 ran the blockade last month, leading the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro on a two-week chase across the North Atlantic, before the ship — hastily rechristened the Marinera, under a Russian flag — was finally captured off the coast of Scotland. The incident embodies a new phase in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the Venezuelan regime — one that seeks to control Venezuela’s oil supplies as a leverage against America’s adversaries.

The Bella 1/Marinera is not the first rogue oil tanker intercepted by the American navy. On December 10, the U.S. seized The Skipper, formerly named the Adisa, a tanker sanctioned for transporting Iranian oil, as it attempted to sail from Venezuela to Cuba. Also on this Wednesday morning, U.S. forces in the Caribbean intercepted the Panama-flagged Sophia, another “sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker … conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea,” said U.S. Southern Command.

All three vessels appear to be part of the global shadow fleet, numbering at least 1,423 tankers. The shadow fleet smuggles oil from sanctioned countries like Venezuela and Iran to other U.S. adversaries, like Russia, China, and North Korea. More than 900 ships in this fleet are under official American, British, or European sanctions. The U.S. seized four tankers transporting oil from Iran in August 2020, but such military activity has been rare.

However, the Trump administration’s concentration of force around Venezuela presents a rare opportunity to corner and capture at least a portion of this shadow fleet. The U.S. Navy has pinned dozens of sanctioned vessels, laden with sanctioned Venezuelan oil, along the Venezuelan coast. Earlier this year, at least 16 sanctioned tankers attempted to break through the U.S. blockade with sheer numbers, spoofing their location data in an attempt to evade capture.

At least three sanctioned vessels on the Venezuelan coast have tried to claim Russian protection by switching their nation of registration, even though they are currently trapped on the other side of the globe. The Bella 1/Marinera tardily tried the same tactic, trying to switch its nationality after the U.S. Coast Guard had begun its pursuit.

On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed the ship as Russian, complaining that “Marinera has been followed by a U.S. Coast Guard ship, despite the fact that our vessel is located approximately 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) from the U.S. coastline.”

Russia further claimed that, “At present, the vessel is navigating international waters of the North Atlantic under the state flag of the Russian Federation and in full compliance with international maritime law.”

Russia’s loud protestations do not change the facts. Criticizing the U.S. interception of the vagabond vessel is like bank robbers claiming the police had no right to pull over their getaway car because they were obeying all the traffic laws. Current compliance does not erase or absolve the vessel’s shady itinerary.

The reply from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was unconditional, “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world.”

In fact, after Maduro’s capture, the Trump administration seems to be shifting the focus of its pressure on Venezuela from full regime change to securing of Venezuela’s oil supply. As the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world, Venezuela represents a rich prize that Trump does not want to surrender to America’s adversaries.

ABC News reports that the Trump administration has demanded that Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez sever the country’s ties with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba and partner exclusively with the U.S. on oil production.

“The government does intend to control the oil, taking charge of the ships, the tankers, and none of them are going to go to Havana,” said Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) after a briefing by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “And until they start moving — we hope to the open market — there are no more tankers to fill, because they’re totally full.” Rubio reportedly told lawmakers that time is on Trump’s side; the tankers on Venezuela’s shore are already full, and the government will become financially insolvent in a matter of weeks unless it can sell more oil.

President Trump seemingly confirmed this new focus by announcing that Venezuela would turn over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., to be sold at market price.

Trump’s hostile takeover bid for Venezuelan oil fields — not to mention the global shadow fleet — likely informs the desperate wrath palpable in Russia’s response to the U.S. seizure of the Marinera, mentioned above.

But the greatest loser is China, the largest buyer of Venezuela’s black-market oil. The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the new focus of Trump’s pressure campaign a “typical act of bullying,”

“Venezuela is a sovereign country and enjoys full and permanent sovereignty over its natural resources and all economic activities,” insisted Chinese spokeswoman Mao Ning. “The United States’ reckless use of force against Venezuela and its demand that Venezuela dispose of its oil resources under the principle of ‘America First’ constitute bullying behavior, seriously violate international law, gravely infringe upon Venezuela’s sovereignty, and severely harm the rights of the Venezuelan people.”

Perhaps some of this stone-throwing reaches its target. But, when it comes to bullying other nations, the Chinese Communist Party lives in the glassiest house of all.

China is right about one thing, however. By arm-twisting the remnants of Maduro’s regime toward a one-sided oil deal, President Trump has found an “America First” angle to pursue in a post-Maduro Venezuela. The details remain fuzzy: will the oil transfer happen all at once or over time? What control will America and American companies have over Venezuelan oil fields? And will the Trump administration actually finish the job of ousting the drug cartel that currently runs the country, in favor of a democratically elected government?

However, the most significant takeaway from America’s attempt to control Venezuelan oil may be that the Trump administration has stumbled upon a profitable new strategy to enforce America’s diplomatic agenda abroad. The naval blockade and mass seizure of sanctioned oil tankers both cut off Venezuela’s cashflow and provided a windfall of contraband for the U.S. government. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Venezuelan oil in 2019 but granted waivers under the Biden administration, muting the impact.

A vigorous naval campaign to locate and capture rogue tankers may put a stop to other illicit oil trades — Iran presents an easy next target — and add to the economic pressure that American sanctions can inflict on our adversaries. Administration critics may balk, but such actions clearly make America’s adversaries uncomfortable. And, perhaps most importantly, because the tankers have already been duly sanctioned, their capture is clearly legal.