The U.S. seized a 20-year-old oil tanker called The Skipper off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, three sources familiar with the matter told CBS News, after months of heightened tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister denounced the seizure, calling it a “blatant theft” and “an act of international piracy.”

The vessel, known as "The Skipper," was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and other U.S. agencies on Wednesday. It was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022. According to a 2022 Treasury Department notice, the tanker was one of several vessels used for illicit oil shipments by a Gulf-based businessman named Viktor Artemov.

The U.S. seizure of a vessel off Venezuela is likely to squeeze the country’s government, but do little to counter the tankers that secretively move oil from sanctioned countries.

A tanker truck carrying jet fuel rolled over at Westchester County Airport, trapping the driver and prompting a multi-agency emergency response, fire officials said. Crews from the Port Chester Fire Department were dispatched around 11:20 p.

An ABC News analysis of satellite imagery and tracking data shows the oil tanker seized by the U.S. off the coast of Venezuela may have manipulated its location data.

The recent seizure of an oil tanker known as Skipper by the U.S. off the coast of Venezuela marks a dramatic escalation of President Donald Trump’s campaign to choke off Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s access to oil revenues.

The U.S. government seized the ship off Venezuela this week for allegedly transporting oil to sanctioned Iran.