U.S. Seizes Third Runaway Sanctioned Tanker in the Indian Ocean
The Pentagon confirmed that U.S. forces interdicted a third runaway tanker, named Bertha, while it was sailing in the Indian Ocean on February 24. It followed the previous seizures of the Aquila II and the Veronica III, also in the Indian Ocean, as part of a group of tankers that had fled Venezuela, likely bound for China with Venezuelan crude.
“From the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, we tracked it and stopped it,” the posting on social media said. “International waters are not a refuge for sanctioned actors. By land, air, or sea, our forces will find you and deliver justice,” posted the Pentagon.
It cites the tanker for violating the “quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.” The tanker, however, was sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for its involvement with the Iranian oil trade. The Treasury Department cited the Bertha, which has also operated under the alias of Monica S, along with two other tankers managed by Shanghai Legendary Ship Management Company Limited. It said the Bertha had been involved in the Iranian oil exports since at least 2022.
Three boats ran and now all three have been captured.
Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Bertha without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. The vessel was operating in defiance of President Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/YoHlb9v54p
— Department of War ???????? (@DeptofWar) February 24, 2026
The 305,442-dwt vessel departed Venezuela in early January carrying a reported 1.9 million barrels of heavy crude. The interdiction came as "a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction, and boarding," the statement said, happening in the Indian Ocean off the Maldives “without incident,” according to the Pentagon. TankerTrackers.com had pointed out more than a week ago, when the Veronica III was stopped, that the Bertha, which it says uses the zombie name Ekta, was the last of the runaway tankers that the U.S. had not yet interdicted.
Reuters is highlighting that the U.S. has stopped a total of 10 tankers since December and the start of the efforts against Venezuela. At least two of them have been released, while the Marinera (Bella 1) was tracked into the Atlantic, seized, and taken to Scotland. The U.S. recently indicted the captain of that tanker on charges related to sailing under a false flag and disobeying U.S. Coast Guard orders.
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The tanker seized today has a long history and reports of false flag operations. It was built in 2004 and has been sailing as the Bertha since 2024. When the U.S. sanctioned the vessel, it was listed as registered in the Cook Islands, and reports today are still saying Cook Islands. Maritime Cook Islands (MCI), the Cook Islands Ships Registry, issued a statement in January clarifying that it had canceled the ship’s registry on November 25, 2024. It said the vessel had entered its registry in March 2024 and highlighted that the registry was canceled before the U.S. sanctions.
The Bertha is listed in Equasis as falsely claiming Curacao as its current flag. Lloyd’s Register withdrew its class in December 2024, while the databases list its last known port state inspection as April 2024.
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