The United States is pursuing another oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, a US official told Al Jazeera, as Washington intensifies a pressure campaign against the government Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Aljazeera reported. 

The operation on Sunday comes a day after the US Coast Guard seized its second vessel off the coast of Venezuela in two weeks, as part of a “blockade” ordered by US President Donald Trump.

The US official told Al Jazeera that the US coastguard “remains in active pursuit” of the vessel, which they described as being part of Venezuela’s dark fleet trying to evade Washington’s sanctions on the Latin American country’s vital oil sector, according to Aljazeera .