The US military said it had struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people and saving one, Reuters reported.
The administration of President Donald Trump has in recent weeks boasted of its success in destroying vessels suspected of drug trafficking.
The military said in an article in “Ex“ that the vessel was “engaged in drug trafficking operations“.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was sailing on known routes for drug smuggling in the eastern Pacific and was used for drug trafficking“, the publication also said.
Reuters notes that it cannot independently confirm this information.
Ecuador's Maritime Rescue Coordination Center is coordinating search and rescue operations for the survivor, the U.S. Coast Guard said, adding that it is providing technical support.
U.S. military personnel have boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean after tracking the ship from the Caribbean Sea, the Pentagon announced last night, quoted by the Associated Press.
The Pentagon's social media post did not specify whether the ship was connected to Venezuela, which is under U.S. oil sanctions and relies on a fleet of tankers flying false flags to export crude.
The tanker "Aquila II" is one of at least 16 ships that sailed off the Venezuelan coast last month after U.S. forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro, according to information on the website TankerTrackers.com.
Video footage and helicopter photos show a U.S. Navy destroyer sailing alongside the tanker. It was not clear from the video which agency the forces that seized the ship belonged to, the AP noted.
“Aquila II“ "was acting in violation of President Trump's quarantine of sanctioned ships in the Caribbean Sea," the Pentagon said. The statement did not specify whether the ship would be seized, as has happened with at least seven other sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela.
According to information provided by the ship last night, it was not loaded with crude oil.
“Aquila II“ sails under the Panamanian flag and is sanctioned by the United States in connection with the transport of illegal Russian oil, the AP commented. The tanker belongs to a company with an address in Hong Kong and, according to data from ship-tracking websites, has been sailing with its radio transmitter off for most of last year, a practice often used by smugglers to disguise their location.
After the US ousted Maduro in a surprise overnight operation on January 3, the Trump administration has said it wants to establish control over the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela's petroleum products. Officials from President Donald Trump's administration have made it clear that they view the tanker seizures as a way to generate cash as they try to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry and rebuild the country's economy.
Trump is also trying to limit the flow of oil to Cuba, which is subject to strict economic sanctions from the United States and relies on oil supplies from allies such as Mexico, Russia and Venezuela.