Do these viral videos show the U.S. seizing oil tankers linked to Venezuela on January 7, 2026? No, that's not true: Those clips are unrelated to the U.S. pursuit of the tankers "Bella-1" and "Sophia". The clips can be found in posts that predate the capture of the ships.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) on X, where it was published on January 7, 2026. It opened:
‼️‼️🇺🇸🇷🇺 #BREAKING Despite Russia deploying a submarine to protect the tanker Bella 1 in the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. airborne forces began helicopter landings on the tanker minutes ago. An operation is currently underway to seize the tanker belonging to Russia's shadow fleet.
This is what the attached video looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/visionergeo)
On January 7, 2026, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the U.S. seized two oil tankers linked to Venezuela (archived here): Sophia and the Russian-flagged Marinera, also known as Bella-1.
The Russian Ministry of Transportation confirmed (archived here) that Marinera "was granted temporary permission" to sail under the Russian flag on Dec. 24, 2025.
The clip shared on X, however, predated these events. According to the About this tab on Google, the clip had been posted online at least three months before the date of this writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at google.com)
The U.S. seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers attracted another false claim. On the same day the capture was announced, another video, posted to the @NSTRIKE1231 account on
X (archived here) was also offered as footage of the interdiction at sea, but, in reality, it was footage of a 2021 U.S. Marine exercise.
Here is the thumbnail from the @NSTRIKE1231 clip on X:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/NSTRIKE1231)
It matches a clip posted by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, (archived here) and identified as a March 19, 2021 video of a 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit training exercise.
That clip has been posted in various versions that predate the Jan. 7, 2026 capture of Venezuelan oil tankers, including a post by @MilitaryExcursions on You Tube on Oct. 20, 2025 (archived here) which used the section of troops scrambling up a boarding ladder.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post youtube.com/shorts/UImrLJj2TnY)
The video was also found mislabeled in a social media post, as detailed in a Dec. 15, 2025 fact check by Snopes, at the time of a 2025 U.S. military interdiction of a Venezuelan vessel.
