President Donald Trump says the United States carried out a strike inside Venezuela, targeting what he described as a dock used to load boats with drugs. New reporting from CNN now sheds light on how that operation was carried out, and by whom.
The disclosure comes as the U.S. continues an aggressive counter-narcotics campaign in the region, including a separate boat strike Monday in the eastern Pacific that killed two people, according to U.S. officials.
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What Trump said, and when
Trump first alluded to the Venezuela strike during a radio interview Friday, saying the U.S. had “knocked out” a large drug facility. Then on Monday, speaking at Mar-a-Lago alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he offered a more detailed, though still limited, description.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said. “So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area… and that is no longer around.”
Trump did not say how the strike was carried out, who conducted it, or exactly where the dock was located. When pressed, he declined to specify whether the operation involved the U.S. military or the CIA.
What CNN reports about the strike
According to exclusive CNN reporting, the strike Trump described was a CIA-led drone attack carried out earlier this month against a remote port facility along Venezuela’s coast.
Sources familiar with the operation told CNN the dock was believed to be used by the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for onward shipment. No one was present at the site at the time of the strike, and there were no casualties, the sources said. U.S. Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support for the operation.
The CIA declined to comment. The White House and U.S. military have not publicly detailed the operation.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is under U.S. indictment for alleged ties to the drug trade.
First known US strike on land inside Venezuela
If CNN’s reporting is accurate, the operation would mark the first known U.S. attack on a target inside Venezuela since the Trump administration launched its counter-narcotics campaign.
Until now, U.S. strikes had been limited to suspected drug boats operating in international waters. Trump has previously acknowledged authorizing the CIA to plan operations inside Venezuela, but officials had not publicly confirmed a land-based strike.
Venezuela’s government has not publicly acknowledged the attack, and there has been no independent verification of damage on the ground.
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Another boat strike Monday underscores momentum
The Venezuela operation comes as the U.S. continues to carry out lethal strikes at sea.
According to CBS News, a U.S. counter-narcotics strike on a suspected drug boat in the eastern Pacific overnight killed two people.
In a post on X, U.S. Southern Command said that the vessel was involved in drug trafficking and was targeted as part of the same campaign Trump has described as a fight against what his administration calls “narco-terrorists.”
U.S. officials say more than 30 suspected drug boats have been destroyed since September.
Pressure builds on Maduro
The strikes are part of a broader pressure campaign aimed at Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is under U.S. indictment for alleged ties to the drug trade.
The U.S. has surged roughly 15,000 American troops and multiple warships into the Caribbean, ordered what Trump has called a “complete blockade” of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers, and escalated rhetoric toward Maduro himself.
As Straight Arrow News has reported, Trump has suggested it would be “smart” for Maduro to step aside. He warned that if he “plays tough,” it could be “the last time he’s ever able to play tough.”
