On December 10, 2025, U.S. forces executed a bold, surgical seizure of the oil tanker Skipper off the coast of Venezuela, removing roughly 1.8 to 2 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan crude from illicit networks. President Trump publicly hailed the operation as a necessary enforcement of long-standing sanctions and a direct strike at the corrupt revenue streams that prop up the Maduro regime. This was not a roving act of piracy but a law enforcement action aimed squarely at narco-authoritarian kleptocrats and their enablers.
The raid was carried out under the authority of a court-issued warrant and led by U.S. Coast Guard teams who fast-roped onto the deck, with Attorney General Pam Bondi releasing footage of the operation to underscore that Washington meant business. U.S. officials say the vessel had been part of a shadowy shipping network long sanctioned for moving oil for Iran and terrorist proxies, demonstrating how energy and narcotics financing now intersect in the hemisphere. Make no mistake: cutting off those cash flows is a law-and-order move that protects American lives and weakens evil actors abroad.
This tanker seizure comes amid a sustained U.S. campaign against narco-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific—an effort that has included precision strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats and the biggest U.S. maritime buildup in the region since the Cold War. The administration has framed these operations as a legitimate fight against narco-terrorists who export death to our streets, and the increased naval presence is intended to choke off the routes that bring fentanyl and cocaine into our neighborhoods. The hard truth is that soft-on-crime postures and open-border fantasies only embolden these cartels and their state sponsors.
Americans deserve to hear why Washington is acting with newfound resolve: synthetic narcotics flooding our country often trace back to precursor chemicals and complex laundering schemes that cross oceans and financial systems. Analysts and policy experts have long warned that precursor chemicals flow from China to Mexico and beyond, enabling cartel labs that then ship deadly fentanyl to the U.S., a crisis that has killed tens of thousands of our fellow citizens. If we are serious about stopping the overdose epidemic, we must attack the supply chain at its source and choke off the financing that keeps it running.
That China connection is not theoretical. As Epoch Times investigative reporter Joshua Philipp bluntly noted in recent coverage, the CCP facilitates money laundering through Chinese banks, supplies precursor chemicals, and even funnels finished synthetic products—giving Beijing leverage over the region’s criminal economies. Whether you agree with every nuance of that reporting or not, we cannot ignore documented instances of Chinese-made precursors enabling fentanyl production, nor the role of global finance in hiding cartel proceeds. It is time Republicans and patriotic Americans demand real financial warfare against the enablers, not appeasement.
Caracas and Havana predictably screamed “piracy” and “theft” after the seizure, with Venezuela insisting the oil belongs to its people and Cuba condemning the move as an assault on its energy lifeline. Yet reporting shows about half of the Skipper’s cargo was tied to a Cuban state importer and that the vessel had ties to a shadow fleet used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah proxies—further proof that these are not merely commercial disputes but national-security concerns. By disrupting these shipments we cut financing lines linking rogue regimes, and that outcome is worth any howl from authoritarian allies.
Patriots should applaud a government willing to take decisive action where previous administrations hesitated. We must keep pressing: expand sanctions on shipping networks, freeze and seize laundered assets, tighten scrutiny of Chinese financial flows, and give our commanders in the field clear authority to interdict narco-trafficking while respecting the rule of law. Softness costs lives; courage saves them. If Washington will not act to protect American families, then voters must send people to power who will.
