Oil tanker warrant unsealed; Cuba denounces seizure

Dec. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. officials unsealed the warrant issued for the seizure of the shadow fleet oil tanker The Skipper, which the U.S. military seized in international waters earlier this week.

A federal magistrate judge with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia signed the seizure warrant on Nov. 26, which U.S. forces presented upon its seizure on Wednesday in the operation led by the Coast Guard.

"As the premier United States Attorney's office leading efforts to intercept ghost vessels as well as sanctioned products, we remain committed to legally supporting President [Donald] Trump's efforts to make the world a safer place," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a news release on Friday.

Pirro called the tanker's seizure an "enforcement action."

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The seizure led Cuban officials to denounce the action as an "act of piracy and maritime terrorism" that is a "serious violation of international law," The Guardian reported.

"This action is part of the U.S. escalation aimed at hampering Venezuela's legitimate right to freely use and trade its natural resources with other nations, including the supplies of hydrocarbons to Cuba," officials with Cuba's Foreign Ministry said Friday in a statement.

The tanker's seizure negatively impacts Cuba and "intensifies the United States' policy of maximum pressure and economic suffocation" against the island nation, the Cuban officials said.

The Skipper's captain had listed its destination as Cuba's port of Matanzas, but the vessel offloaded about 50,000 barrels of oil to another ship, which carried that oil to Cuba as The Skipper sailed east toward Asia, according to The New York Times.

About 80% of Venezuelan oil shipments go to China, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and former President Hugo Chavez have shipped oil to Cuba for decades.

In exchange for low-cost Venezuelan oil, Cuban officials provide security personnel for Maduro and thousands of medical staff and sports instructors to Venezuela.

Most of the oil sent to Cuba does not stay there and instead is sold to China to help fund the Cuban government, The Times reported.

The vessel is associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and is part of a shadow fleet affiliated with a Russian oligarch.

The vessel was sanctioned by the United States and flying a Guyana flag when it was seized, but Guyana government officials said they have no record of the vessel being registered there.

U.S. officials said they will keep the oil carried by the 1,092-foot tanker, which is being taken to Galveston, Texas.