The United States imposed new sanctions on Thursday on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and six ships transporting the nation’s oil, Axios reported.
The measures will be announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, it said.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US had seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, accusing it of sending narcotics to the United States.
"Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people," Axios cited Bessent as saying in a written statement.
Axios said each of the six tankers was registered to a different company. Four were based in the Marshall Islands with one each in the United Kingdom and the British Virgin Islands.
(Reporting by Kkatharine Jackson, writing by David Ljunggren: Editing by Caitlin Webber)