The U.S. Coast Guard has been pursuing the sanctioned tanker—now sailing with a Russian registration—for the past two weeks after it refused to be boarded in the Caribbean Sea.

The United States has started an operation to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic after it evaded a partial blockade around Venezuela, multiple US media said Wednesday.

US forces boarded and seized a sanctioned oil tanker Wednesday morning, more than two weeks after it eluded a blockade around Venezuela and was reflagged as a Russian vessel in a failed bid to evade capture.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Moscow sent a submarine and another vessel to escort the Marinera tanker, previously known as Bella 1.