CIA ‘carries out drone strike’ on Venezuelan drug port in first US land strike as Trump piles pressure on Maduro
CIA agents launched a massive drone attack on a Venezuelan port where drugs were allegedly being loaded onto ships bound for the United States, sources say.
Donald Trump said Monday that its army had “struck” a Venezuelan port area, but refused to specify how it orchestrated the strike.
THE Christmas The Eve drone strike was carried out by the CIA, multiple sources told CNN.
Welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump announced, “We have hit all boats.”
He added: “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they were loading the boats with drugs.
“We’ve hit all the boats, and now we’re hitting the area. »
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Asked if the CIA was behind the attack, Trump replied: “I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say.”
Trump has previously said he authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
Sources say the strike took place at a remote dock on the coast of Venezuela, believed to be used by the Tren de Aragua gang to store and transfer drugs across the Caribbean.
No one was killed in the attack and the United States has yet to release video footage, as it has for other successful seizures and bombings.
Historically, strike announcements came either from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth or from one of the U.S. military’s social media accounts on the X social media platform.
However, neither has issued notice of a strike on any installation, and the Pentagon referred all questions about it to the White House.
Trump had hinted at a strike earlier in the day, as he continues his pressure campaign against the South American nation.
His first comments came in a surprise radio interview Friday with host John Catsimatidis.
After ringing in the broadcast, the president discussed U.S. strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
“I don’t know if you’ve read or seen, they have a big factory or a big facility where they send the…where the ships come from,” Trump said.
“Two nights ago we knocked him out. So we hit them really hard.”
He did not add any additional information during the interview.
In 29 known targeted strikes, at least 105 people have been killed since September.
The Venezuelan government has yet to respond to Trump’s latest claims.
This comes after months of The Don hinting that he would order ground strikes in Venezuela – and possibly elsewhere – while saying the US would escalate its action from ship strikes to land strikes.
In October, he confirmed that he had authorized a covert CIA operation in Venezuela.
The agency has yet to back up Trump’s claims.
To date, Trump’s troops have sent warships, strengthened their military forces in the region, seized two oil tankers and pursued a third.
The White House claims to be in armed conflict with drug cartels and seeks to stem the flow of illicit substances into the United States, as part of Trump’s ongoing “war on drugs.”
Part of his campaign against the South American nation includes claims that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is the head of major cartels.
Maduro has denied the allegations and has consistently insisted that the real motivation behind the military operations was to force him from power.
Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, recently told Vanity Fair that the president “wants to keep blowing up boats until Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro cries uncle.”
