(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trump said the U.S. "successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela" and said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were "captured and flown out of the Country."
The announcement on Trump's social media platform came shortly before 4:30 a.m. Saturday a few hours after several explosions were heard in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas, witnesses said, and photos and videos showed plumes of smoke and a large fireball in the night sky.
Trump said the operation was carried out in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement. Members of Congress said the military, which sources included the elite Delta Force, was in place to support that law enforcement operation.
There were no immediate reports of U.S. military deaths during the operation. However Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said some Americans were injured and that a helicopter was hit.
"I spoke with Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio this morning. He did share that we did have wounded personnel, but no killed, but that is never guaranteed in advance," Cotton said on Fox News.
The operation came amid escalating tensions with Maduro and the Venezuelan regime, and questions about the impetus behind a series of boat strikes targeting alleged drug shipping vessels.
'Speed and violence'
The president went into more detail about the operation later in an interview with Fox News, saying the attack was something nobody else could have done, and "extremely complex" executed with "speed and violence."
"The whole maneuver, the landings, the number of aircraft which were massive number, the number of helicopters, the different type of helicopters, different type of fighter jets, we had a fighter jet for every possible situation," he said in the phone interview.
"And really they just broke in, and they broke into places that were not really able to be, broke into, you know, steel doors that was were put there for just this reason, and they got taken out in a matter of seconds," he added.
The president said Maduro tried to escape, but "bum rushed" by U.S. forces, according to the interview. He said he had given Maduro off ramps recently.
"Well, basically, I said, you have to give up. You have to surrender," Trump said in the interview.
Alleged 'narco-terrorism conspiracy'
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, "will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts" on a slew of charges in New York, including "narco-terrorism conspiracy" and "cocaine importation conspiracy" as well as weapons charges. Maduro has faced the charges in New York for years.
A federal indictment against Maduro, and his family was unsealed Saturday, saying he was "at the forefront" of a narco-terrorism conspiracy that imported tons of cocaine into the United States.
The indictment, handed up last month by a federal grand jury in New York, accused Maduro of allowing "cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members."
The indictment named two of those family members, Maduro's wife Cilia and his son Nicolas, as part of the alleged conspiracy and, in total, charged six defendants with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News Maduro was being flown to New York. While the sources did not specify where Maduro will be held, defendants awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan are customarily held at MDC-Brooklyn.
The operation that led to Maduro's capture was carried out by the Army's Delta Force after the CIA had identified the leader's precise location, according to two people familiar with the operation. Delta Force is an elite special operations group of soldiers trained in secret counterterrorism operations and hostage rescues.
A source said “the CIA had a small team clandestinely on the ground starting in August that was able to provide extraordinary insight into Maduro’s pattern of life that made grabbing him seamless.”
And that source said CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Rubio, top aide Stephen Miller and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth "formed a core team working this issue for months with consistent meetings and phone calls, sometimes even daily … often meeting both with the president and separately."
Trump told Fox News that he watched every aspect of the operation from Florida and said Maduro tried to escape but was "bum rushed."
"He was in a, in a house that was more like a fortress than a house. It had steel doors. It had what they call a safety space," Trump said, adding that Maduro did not make it into the space before being captured.
The president said in preparation, the U.S. military built a replica house to train for the operation.
Maduro was taken by helicopter to the US Iwo Jima and would be transported to New York, according to Trump.
"The helicopters took 'em out, and they went by helicopter in a nice flight. I'm sure they loved it," he said.
One person told ABC News that Trump had given the green light to capture Maduro several days ago and troops were ready to strike on Christmas Day, but were delayed due to military airstrikes in Nigeria against ISIS. Subsequent opportunities were postponed partly due to weather, the person said.
CBS first reported the details on the operation.
In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, President Trump celebrated what he called the success of the mission to capture Maduro, who the U.S. has considered the head of a foreign terrorist organization since a November designation.
"A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people," Trump told The New York Times. "It was a brilliant operation, actually."
When asked whether he had sought congressional authorization for the operation or what would come next for Venezuela, Trump said he would address those matters during his news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning.
'No further action' anticipated
Republican Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, said in a post on X that he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the phone about the actions being taken in Venezuela after initially asking "what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force."
According to Lee, Rubio said that Maduro had been "arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States," and that the "kinetic action" was taken to protect those executing the warrant.
He also said that Rubio told him he anticipates "no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody."
"This was an incredibly dangerous operation to conduct," said ABC Contributor Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer and senior Pentagon official. "It required precise intelligence, detailed planning and flawless execution by these Delta operators and all the support, especially the [Joint Special Operations Command] air component, to pull it off in the manner that they did."
Senate and House Republicans praised Trump's actions, with Sen. Rick Scott, of Florida saying "a new day is here for Venezuela and Latin America" in a post on X and Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas saying Maduro "wasn't just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation."
But the action was criticized by Democrats.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, of Arizona, blasted Trump's move, calling it the "second unjustified war in my life time" in a post on X. "This war is illegal, it's embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year. There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela."
The latest events come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela including a build-up of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean and the targeting of alleged drug-smuggling boats.
Some 15,000 U.S. military personnel were in the area as well as the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier.
The operation also comes a short time after the first-known land strike carried out against a dock where Trump said drugs were being loaded onto boats.
International reaction
The Venezuelan government issued a statement condemning what it called "the grave military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America" in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
In addition, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the implementation of national defense plans, and declared a "state of External Disturbance throughout the national territory," according to the statement.
Russia condemned the action as "an act of armed aggression against Venezuela" and said it wanted to prevent "further escalation," according to the country's Foreign Ministry. And Colombian President Gustavo Petro said "Alert the world: Venezuela has been attacked!" in a post on X. But Trump ally and Argentinian president Javier Milei praised the move.
The U.S. has long considered Maduro the head of a corrupt dictatorial regime. In 2024, Maduro declared victory after a widely disputed presidential election for a third term.
US recently declares Maduro head of terror organization
In an unprecedented move in November, the Trump administration declared Maduro the head of a foreign terrorist organization, citing alleged links to drug cartels, which Maduro denied.
The designation put the Venezuelan leader on the same list as terror networks like al-Qaeda and the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. In August, Rubio announced the U.S. had increased the reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest from $25 million to $50 million.
Maduro has faced charges in the United States of narcotics-terrorism since 2020, when federal prosecutors in New York accused him of partnering with a Colombian rebel group to "flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and wellbeing" of the nation.
The charges include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons possession conspiracy. Prosecutors allege that Maduro and 14 current or former officials ran a vast criminal enterprise for the last 20 years, using state resources to fuel the international drug trade, including in the U.S.