U.S. authorities intercepted 90 Cuba-bound biodiesel shipments worth nearly $3 million as the energy blockade on the communist island tightens further.
Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said the cargo was headed for ENETEC S.A., a Havana-based fuel wholesaler already under U.S. sanctions. CBS News reported the seizures after agents matched trade records with intelligence pointing to illegal exports from American ports.
The operation is part of a Department of Homeland Security-led effort to cut off fuel routed to Cuba’s crisis-hit energy sector and to enforce export controls against a regime long run by the Fidel Castro-founded Communist Party.
Federal agencies first uncovered intelligence weeks earlier that U.S.-exported fuel was reaching the sanctioned company in violation of recent restrictions. In early September, after parsing that trade and intelligence data, CBP officials found biodiesel shipments leaving Port Everglades in Florida and the Port of Houston, both bound for Havana.
At Port Everglades, authorities seized 71 oil storage tanks holding roughly 500,000 gallons of biodiesel. At the Port of Houston, they captured 19 more shipments containing about 120,000 gallons. Together the 90 intercepted loads were valued at nearly $3 million.
Agencies said the interdictions came amid suspected violations of federal export laws, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Administration Regulations. They did not name the exporters and did not say whether any individuals or companies had been charged in the ongoing investigation.
ENETEC S.A. was sanctioned by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in July. Officials framed the latest stops as a direct denial of resources obtained in violation of U.S. law.
HSI Miami Special Agent in Charge Jose Figueroa said the agencies would keep working with partners to shut down evasion schemes.
"continue to identify, disrupt and investigate efforts to evade U.S. sanctions, protect the integrity of U.S. export controls and deny the Cuban government access to resources obtained in violation of U.S. law."
Daniel Alonso, a CBP director of field operations, underscored outbound enforcement as well as inbound checks.
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection is steadfast in enforcing the laws of the United States across all domains, encompassing both incoming commerce and outbound shipments."
The biodiesel haul sits inside a wider maritime crackdown. On Sept. 5, the Coast Guard intercepted the Grace, a roughly 300-foot cargo vessel, between Cuba and Mexico while it was carrying fuel. The service announced that stop last week. Earlier in the summer, the Coast Guard seized the Jaira Provider with more than 200,000 gallons of fuel aboard.
Those vessel actions, paired with the Florida and Texas port seizures, show federal agencies treating Cuba-bound energy cargo as a priority enforcement target rather than a one-off tip.
Earlier this year, President Trump moved to cut off most energy shipments to Cuba by threatening tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island. He has pressed Havana for sweeping economic and political changes and has accused the regime of working with Russia, China, and Iran.
Trump has not ruled out using military force. Last month he told reporters he hopes to make a deal and does not believe the military will be necessary. In late September, the U.S. Army Reserve was asked to examine whether it can provide police forces and other support units to U.S. Southern Command as part of continued military planning around Cuba.
The policy through-line is consistent: choke illicit and sanctioned energy flows, raise the cost of defiance, and keep diplomatic and military options on the table while enforcement agencies do the day-to-day work of stopping cargo.
Cuba’s energy system is already under severe strain. Rolling blackouts have prompted shortages affecting roughly 3.5 million people in Havana. Fuel that never reaches ENETEC or other regime-linked channels is fuel the government cannot use to paper over those failures.
Cuban officials earlier this year called the U.S. approach "economic warfare" and "aggression." Washington’s stated aim is narrower and lawful: stop exports that break U.S. sanctions and deny the Cuban government resources obtained in violation of American law.
Taxpayers and lawful shippers play by export rules every day. A sanctioned Havana wholesaler does not get a free pass because the island’s Communist Party has held power for more than half a century.
When federal agents seize hundreds of thousands of gallons before they leave U.S. docks, the blockade is not a slogan. It is a bill of lading that never gets stamped for delivery.
