A U.S. Coast Guard and Navy team boarded and seized a vessel between 1:46 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. UTC on January 9, 2026, according to a New York Times live update by reporter Eric Schmitt cited in a post on X by TRBRTC. The seizure was reported in The New York Times' ongoing coverage of Venezuela developments, linking to a specific update at nytimes.com/live/2026/01/09/world/venezuela-trump-us. In parallel U.S. military activity during the same 29-minute window, two U.S. Navy C-2A Greyhound aircraft—callsigns RAWHD51 (registration 162166, hex AE0454) and RAWHD52 (registration 162157, hex AE0451)—departed San Juan, Puerto Rico, en route to the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), as posted on X by Flightwatcher1 referencing SOUTHCOM's Operation Southern Spear. The vessel seizure aligns with prior U.S. Coast Guard actions reported earlier on January 9, including the boarding of shadow fleet tanker M/V Olina (IMO 9282479) in the Caribbean, one of five tankers seized in the past month totaling 6.15 million barrels of oil.
