U.S. Seizes Oil Tanker Hiding Behind Falsified GPS to Evade Sanctions

U.S. forces seized an oil tanker off Venezuela this week after tracking data and satellite imagery indicated the ship was falsifying and concealing its location to evade U.S. sanctions.

The Treasury Department has identified the vessel as part of an illicit oil-shipping network. Publicly available satellite imagery and ship-tracking data indicate that the tanker named Skipper concealed its location, with the same tracking data suggesting it carried sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela.

Both countries’ oil industries are under U.S. sanctions, and the Skipper has been “punished by the Treasury Department since 2022.” Treasury sanctions records from November 2022 identify the vessel ADISA as an oil products tanker linked to Triton Navigation Corp., an entity Treasury designated under executive order 13224. The Treasury release also identified Triton Navigation as a company used to arrange ownership of oil vessels and states that “the ADISA is being identified as property in which Triton Navigation Corp. has an interest.”

In its November 3, 2022, press release announcing the designations, Treasury said the network it targeted used shell companies and fraudulent tactics, including document falsification, to obfuscate the origins of Iranian oil and evade sanctions. U.S. forces captured the Skipper on Wednesday, allegedly transporting Iranian and Venezuelan oil to Cuba.

The ship described as a “shadow vessel” hid its position by sending fake signal locations, a practice known as “spoofing.” A maritime analytics company estimated the ship obscured its location through spoofing for more than 80 days over the past two years. Data suggested that the Skipper conducted a ship-to-ship transfer between August 11 and August 13, a maneuver confirmed by satellite imagery, with cargo reportedly unloaded in China where it was “falsely declared.”

The vessel’s track moved between the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean. Publicly accessible satellite imagery placed the tanker near Venezuela, while some transponder-based tracking indicated proximity to Guyana. Trump has accused Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro of shipping illicit drugs into the United States, which Maduro denies, and described the seizure as part of his pressure campaign on Venezuela’s government.

Venezuela has historically used vessels such as the Skipper to mitigate the impact of oil sanctions imposed by Trump. Subsequently, Venezuela has resorted to deploying dark, or shadow, fleets—ships that reportedly account for up to 20% of the global oil tanker fleet—and frequently obscure their destinations by altering data records.