Terrorism Law Now Unleashed: Feds Unseal Tanker Seizure Order
The seizure warrant for the rogue oil tanker that was
carrying a load of Venezuelan oil has been released. This should silence
any critics of the seizure who were claiming this wasn't done properly;
it probably won't silence Maduro's Venezuelan or Cuban complaints, but
there's little reason to care about them. The warrant is ample evidence
of the propriety of the seizure.
A newly unsealed warrant shows the U.S. Coast Guard
seized the M/T Skipper, a crude oil tanker intercepted off Venezuela,
just before the warrant was set to expire on Wednesday.
Why it matters: The move comes as the Trump administration layers on new U.S. sanctions
against Venezuelan oil shipping networks and Venezuelan leader Nicolás
Maduro's inner circle, aiming to raise the risks for companies moving
the country's crude.
The sanctions escalate the Trump
administration's campaign to choke off what it calls illicit oil flows
tied to Iran and Maduro's government in Caracas.
Driving the news: The warrant,
signed by U.S. magistrate judge Zia Faruqui on Nov. 26, was obtained
under federal law that authorizes seizure of all assets "engaged in
planning or perpetrating any Federal crime of terrorism," according to a
Friday news release from the U.S. attorney general's office for D.C.
What they're saying: "The
FBI's Counterintelligence Division and our partners will continue to
enforce U.S. sanctions and cut off our adversaries from financial
markets and critical technology," FBI Director Kash Patel said in the
news release.
He added that the seizure highlights the success of "efforts to impose costs on the governments of Venezuela and Iran."
Judge Faraqui,
a Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the District
of Columbia, was appointed to his present position in September, 2020.
He appears to have ample experience dealing with cases like this:
Following
law school, he was a litigation associate at Willkie Farr in
Washington, D.C., where he focused on government investigations and
general commercial litigation. Judge Faruqui then served for twelve
years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in St.
Louis and Washington D.C. While there, he prosecuted cases involving
terrorists use of cryptocurrency, North Korean weapons proliferation,
darknet sites dedicated to child exploitation, and the theft of
antiquities. He also represented the Department of Justice at numerous
conferences across the globe on financial crimes, cryptocurrency, and
national security issues.
That's good; a judge who knows his business and applies the law.
The
loss of a million barrels of crude, even dirty Venezuelan crude, now
that has to sting. While detonating drug-carrying speedboats is putting a
lot of retail pressure on the Maduro regime, the seizure of this tanker
is raising things to the wholesale level.
Of
course, this seizure raises one question: Are there more tramp tankers
out there like the M/T Skipper? If so, are any of them filling up at
Venezuelan ports, and if they are, when will be seizing them as well?
You review the (heavily redacted, likely so as not to give away methods and equipment employed in the seizure) here.
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