A day after the United States seized a Venezuelan oil tanker flying the Guyana flag in the Caribbean Sea, the Trump administration said it was targeting Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s government by sanctioning three nephews of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores; a Maduro-affiliated businessman; and six shipping companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on Dec. 11, that it was also “identifying six associated vessels that have engaged in deceptive and unsafe shipping practices and continue to provide financial resources that fuel Maduro’s corrupt narco-terrorist regime.”
Secretary of the Department of the Treasury Scott Bessent claimed in a statement that “Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people.
“These sanctions undo the Biden administration’s failed attempt to make a deal with Maduro, enabling his dictatorial and brutal control at the expense of the Venezuelan and American people,” he said.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” Bessent added.
OFAC charged that two of Cilia Flores’ nephews designated on Dec. 11, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores (Campo) and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas (Flores de Freitas), are narco-traffickers operating in Venezuela.
In November 2015, OFAC said Campo and Flores de Freitas, known popularly as the “narco-nephews,” were arrested in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as they were finalizing a deal to transport hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to the United States.
A year later, OFAC said they were convicted on narco-trafficking charges “but were granted clemency in October 2022 by President Joe Biden.”
OFAC said Campo and Flores de Freitas returned to Venezuela and, “as of 2025, have continued their drug trafficking activities.”
OFAC said it was designating Campo and Flores de Freitas for “having engaged in or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.”
Carlos Erik Malpica Flores (Malpica), the third of Cilia Flores’ nephews designated on Dec. 11, and a former purported national treasurer of Venezuela and purported vice president of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), was designated in July 2017 but removed from OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) in 2022 “to promote the resumption of negotiations for an ultimately failed deal pursued by the Biden administration to return democratic elections to Venezuela,” OFAC claimed.
“Maduro continues to deny democratic values in the country and refuses to recognize the will of the Venezuelan people, and thus it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to continue to apply pressure to those tied to the Maduro regime,” it added.
Accordingly, OFAC said it was redesignating Malpica for “being a current or former official of the Government of Venezuela.”
OFAC said Malpica, Campo and Flores de Freitas join Maduro Cilia Flores, Maduro’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra, and Cilia Flores’ three sons, Walter Gavidia Flores, Yosser Gavidia Flores and Yoswal Gavidia Flores, on the SDN List.
Also targeted was Ramon Carretero Napolitano (Carretero), a Panamanian businessman, who “has engaged in lucrative contracts with the Maduro regime and has had various business dealings with the Maduro-Flores family, including partnering in several companies together,” OFLAC said.
It claimed that Carretero has facilitated shipments of petroleum products on behalf of the Venezuelan government.
OFAC said it was designating Carretero for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.”
The US’ action also targeted Venezuela’s oil sector, “which continues to fund Maduro’s illegitimate regime,” OFAC claimed.
It said this includes six shipping companies moving Venezuelan oil.
On Jan. 28, 2019, OFAC said it designated PDVSA for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy” and that, on Aug. 5, 2019, “President Trump blocked.”
OFAC said Myra Marine Limited is registered in the Marshall Islands and is the registered owner and manager of the vessel White Crane.
As recently as October 2025, OFAC said White Crane has loaded oil in Venezuela.
It said White Crane has also used “deceptive practices to obfuscate its location by either failing to transmit its location or transmitting a false location.”
OFAC said it was designating Myra Marine Limited for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy and is identifying White Crane as blocked property.”
OFAC said Arctic Voyager Incorporated is registered in the Marshall Islands and is the registered owner of the Panama-flagged vessel Kiara M.
In September and October 2025, OFAC said Kiara M loaded oil in Venezuela and is presently headed for Asia to offload its cargo.
OFAC said it was also designating Arctic Voyager Incorporated for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy and is identifying Kiara M as blocked property.”
In addition, OFAC said Poweroy Investment Limited is registered in the British Virgin Islands and is the registered owner of the Panama-flagged vessel H. Constance.
In October 2025, OFAC claimed H. Constance loaded Venezuelan oil, and has “repeatedly manipulated its transmissions to obfuscate its location and loading of Venezuelan oil.”
Poweroy Investment Limited was designated for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy,” OFAC said.
It also identified H. Constance as “blocked property.”
OFAC said Ready Great Limited is registered in the Marshall Islands and is the registered owner of the Panama-flagged vessel Lattafa.
In multiple shipments through 2025, OFAC said Lattafa loaded and transported Venezuelan oil to Asia.
“Lattafa has manipulated its transmissions to obfuscate its location and loading of Venezuelan oil,” it said, designating Ready Great Limited for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy” and “identifying Lattafa as blocked property.”
OFAC said Sino Marine Services Limited is registered in the United Kingdom, and is the manager and operator of Hong Kong-flagged vessel Tamia.
In June 2025, OFAC said Tamia loaded and transported Venezuelan oil to Asia, and has “manipulated its transmissions to obfuscate its location and loading of Venezuelan oil.”
As such, OFAC said it was designating Sino Marine Services Limited for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy” and was identifying TAMIA as “blocked property.”
OFAC said Full Happy Limited is registered in the Marshall Islands, and is the registered owner and manager of the Cook Islands-flagged vessel Monique.
In late May 2025, OFAC claimed that Monique “loaded and transported Venezuelan oil to Asia.”
Hence, OFAC said it was designating Full Happy Limited, also for “operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.”
It also identified Monique as “blocked property.”
As a result of the Dec. 11 action, OFAC said all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons who are in the United States, or in the possession or control of US persons, are “blocked and must be reported to OFAC.”
In addition, it said, “any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons, are also blocked.”
OFAC said violations of US sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on US and foreign persons. It also said it may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. Additionally, OFAC said financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities involving designated or otherwise blocked persons.
OFAC said the prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated or blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
The US Department of State also said on Dec. 11 that the Trump administration “will continue to deny financial lifelines to the illegitimate Maduro regime, which he uses to oppress the Venezuelan people.
“The United States is committed to keeping the American people safe by using all available means to eliminate threats of narco-trafficking and crime throughout our hemisphere,” the statement said.
As he escalates pressure to force Maduro from office, President Trump told reporters on Dec. 10 that the US military had just seized the oil tanker.
“As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”
But Democratic legislators and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, immediately condemned the remarks.
“It sounds a lot like the beginning of a war,” Paul, a constant critic of Trump’s Venezuela policy, told reporters.
He said it is not “the job of the American government to go looking for monsters around the world, looking for adversaries and beginning wars.”
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said he was “gravely concerned that (Trump) is sleepwalking us into a war with Venezuela.”
Last week, Paul and Democratic Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia, Adam Schiff of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York introduced a war powers resolution that would prohibit Trump from starting a war with Venezuela without approval from the US Congress.
“If you want war, the president should come to Congress, like the Constitution dictates, and he should ask Congress for a declaration of war,” Paul said. “That’s what should be going on right now.”
At the same time, Schiff warned that Trump’s latest action seems to be “a very dangerous escalation and a prelude to a potential conflict we should not be involved in.”
In posting a video on X later on Dec. 10, US Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that the oil tanker was transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” she wrote.
But Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister, Yván Gil Pinto, described the oil tanker’s seizure as a “blatant theft” and “an act of international piracy.”
“The true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have been laid bare. It is not migration. It is not drug trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always been about our natural wealth, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” he wrote on social media.
Guyana Maritime Administration Department said in a statement posted on Facebook on Dec. 10 that, while the tanker was flying a Guyana flag. it is not registered in Guyana.
“The Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) has observed the proliferation and unacceptable trend of the unauthorized use of the Guyana Flag by vessels that are not registered in Guyana,” the statement said.
“Today, the Government of the United States of America (USA) informed the Guyana Maritime Administration Department that they have encountered the Motor Tanker SKIPPER (ex-ADISA), IMO Number 9304667 in International Waters,” it added. “It was falsely flying the Guyana Flag, as it is not registered in Guyana.”
Meantime, Schiff has called on Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his involvement in boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the killing of survivors, and the national security breaches that endangered the US military through Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive national security information.
“[Hegseth] should be fired over this killing of these survivors at sea, and he should be fired for endangering our pilots,” said Schiff on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, where he reiterated that the unauthorized and illegal boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea are “dragging the United States closer to war with Venezuela.
“That Inspector General report made it clear that his actions in using this commercial app to Signal military strike plans ahead of those strikes endangered our pilots,” Schiff added. “It also endangered the success of the mission. That is more than enough reason to get rid of him.
“That kind of dangerous incompetence puts everyone at risk,” the senator continued. “His claim of exoneration is based on the fact that he has the authority to declassify information, and he is deeming it declassified because he went through this reckless step of texting it out on Signal to a journalist and family members and others.”
Schiff stressed that the US military’s continued strikes on suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean Sea are “unauthorized and illegal.”
In appearing on ABC TV’s “This Week” on Sunday, Congressman Adam Smith of Washington, the top-ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee, said that surveillance video of the US military strikes on the alleged narco-trafficking boat in the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 2 contradicts descriptions by Hegseth and other Republicans.
“When they [the survivors] were finally taken out, they weren’t trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated,” Smith said. “A tiny portion of it remained, capsized, the bow of the boat. They had no communications device. Certainly, they were unarmed.
“Any claim that the drugs had somehow survived that attack is hard, hard to really square with what we saw,” he added, describing the video as “deeply disturbing.”
“It did not appear that these two survivors were in any position to continue the fight,” Smith continued.
In the meantime, Caribbean-American American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke has condemned what she described as the Trump administration’s “unauthorized” military strikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela and in the Caribbean Sea.
“Since September, the Trump administration has carried out a series of unauthorized military strikes off the coast of Venezuela, across the Caribbean, and the Eastern Pacific,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, told Caribbean Life. “These operations have resulted in more than 80 deaths across 20 separate strikes — actions undertaken without congressional authorization, in clear violation of our Constitution.
“This ‘kill first and ask questions never’ approach is not only unlawful but fundamentally un-American,” added the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “These strikes have done nothing to curb the opioid crisis here at home.
“Instead, they reflect poor leadership and reckless decision-making at the highest levels, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issuing a verbal order ‘to kill everybody’ during a second strike on a suspected drug vessel, which is an alarming directive that demonstrates a cavalier disregard for both US and international law,” Clarke continued. “To date, the administration has provided no credible evidence to justify its actions.
“Rather than taking responsibility or accountability, this administration has shown nothing short of cowardly leadership by attempting to shift blame onto Navy Vice Admiral Frank Bradley for this unauthorized escalation toward conflict with Venezuela,” she said, noting that Congressional Democrats have called for briefings and hearings to address “these unlawful military actions.”
“Until we receive a formal explanation from the administration, it must cease using our Armed Forces for any hostilities in Venezuela or across the Caribbean,” the congresswoman said. “The Trump administration must atone for its actions before more are taken without due process and before further damage is done to our relationships with our Caribbean and Venezuelan neighbors.”
The US military reportedly struck the alleged drug-trafficking boat on Sept. 2 four times — twice to kill the 11 suspects on board and an additional two times to sink the boat.
