The United States has already captured the seventh tanker of the Russian “shadow fleet”

It is owned by a Chinese citizen

The US military seized the tanker Sagitta in the Caribbean. The ship was sailing under the flag of Liberia and was included in the American sanctions lists, the US Southern Command said .

The statement said the detention "demonstrates a determination to ensure that the only oil leaving Venezuela is oil whose exports are properly and legally coordinated."

The current owner of the Sagitta ship, according to the database of the international maritime organization GISIS, is the Hong Kong company Camelia Jackson. Its founder and director is Chinese citizen Li Lirong, New Europe found out.

Until 2022, the ship belonged to the Japanese shipping company Lepta Shipping, a subsidiary of the large Mitsui holding company, and was managed by the large German company Bernhard Schulte.

In January 2025, the ship came under US sanctions. Then the US Department of Justice stated that the ship was owned by Sunne Co Limited. The American department classified the previously captured ships M Sophia and Olina as the property of the same company. But according to shipping database Equasis, the ships are owned by three different Hong Kong companies, at least formally owned by different Chinese nationals. Sunne Co itself was liquidated in July 2025. Its legal connection to the captured ships is unclear: as far as public records can tell, the company never formally owned or operated any of the three vessels.

In mid-December 2025, US authorities announced a naval blockade of Venezuela. The seized vessels were either transporting Venezuelan oil in circumvention of US sanctions, or had previously been seen doing so, Reuters notes . Many of them turned out to be connected with Russia.