From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is the Daily.

President Trump says that the United States has now seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.

Since December, the U.S. has been stopping and seizing oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela.

Largest one ever seized that could.

After President Trump imposed a blockade on ships carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

You know, showing U.S. helicopters surrounding the ship. You see that there.

Ships that are part of what's known as a ghost fleet. That's the U.S. Coast Guard seizing another ghost fleet tanker. This now, as the U.S. is pursuing a third oil tanker near Venezuela. Oil tankers that try to secretly make their way around the world. Four vessels are now in American custody. Several more are being tracked. It marks the fifth tanker. The U.S. has seized a sixth oil tanker now.

A seventh sanction oil tanker. Funding petro-states like Venezuela, Iran, and Russia.

Today, my colleague Christian Trebert, on what these ghost fleets are exactly and how their

days might be numbered.

It's Tuesday, January 27th.

Christian, welcome to the Daily.

Thank you.

So, Christian, the U.S. has been seizing and stopping oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela for weeks now.

And at first, this seemed like part of a pressure campaign against President Nicholas Maduro.

But then obviously, the U.S. captured Maduro.

And I think a lot of people assumed that this effort, this pressure on the ships would stop.

But instead, it's actually not only continued, but expanded.

You are the newsroom's resident expert on these oil tankers.

You've been tracking all of this as part of our visual investigations team.

So let's start at the very beginning.

What is a ghost fleet or shadow fleet?

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