The US said on Wednesday it had seized 90 separate shipments of biodiesel bound for Cuba worth nearly $3 million, the second time in a week US authorities have announced the seizure of illegal fuel en route to the island nation.
The enforcement action comes as the Trump administration continues to strangle Cuba's energy sector, allowing only relatively small shipments of fuel to reach the island's private sector in a programme aimed at undercutting the Cuban Government.
The Department of Homeland Security Miami Special Agent in Charge Jose Figueroa told reporters in Miami on Wednesday that the seized shipments were bound for Enetec, a Havana-based, state-owned fuel company sanctioned by the US earlier this year.
Authorities said they had intercepted the fuel shipments in Houston and at Port Everglades, in south Florida, before they departed the US. More than 600,000 gallons of fuel were seized, Homeland Security said.
"An effort of this magnitude to undermine US sanctions does not occur by accident," Figueroa said. "These actions concern shipments suspected of benefitting the Cuban regime through a state-controlled entity.
"Those who seek to undermine US law to finance, facilitate or benefit from such efforts should be on notice."
Cuba's government did not immediately comment on the fuel seizure.
The Trump administration's fuel blockade on Cuba has been called "economic warfare" by Cuba's communist-run government. It has vastly worsened ongoing blackouts, water shortages and inflation across the island, pushing the island towards a humanitarian crisis.
US President Donald Trump has openly stated that his goal with the blockade and sanctions is to upend Cuba's government.
The US Coast Guard late last week announced that it had intercepted a large container ship in September carrying fuel bound for Cuba.
It said the ship had attempted to evade authorities and that it carried large quantities of fuel hidden in its ballast tanks.
The US has not revealed the identity of the exporters in either case.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
