US naval forces have boarded the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Bertha within the US Indo-Pacific Command Area of Responsibility in the Indian Ocean. The US Department of War stated that forces conducted a “right-of-visit maritime interdiction and boarding” overnight without incident. The Department said on X that the 2004-built vessel was operating in defiance of “President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean and attempted to evade” monitoring after transiting from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. Maritime security specialist Vanguard stated that the 305,442 dwt VLCC was added to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned vessel list in December 2024 under the alias Monica S. OFAC linked the tanker to Shanghai Legendary Ship Management Company and identified it as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” engaged in the transport of Iranian crude oil. Three boats ran and now all three have been captured.Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Bertha without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. The vessel was operating in defiance of President Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/YoHlb9v54p— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) February 24, 2026 googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsChina United States