President Donald Trump confirmed early Saturday in a social media post that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been taken into U.S. custody, just hours after reports of multiple explosions ringing out across Caracas surfaced.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the U.S. carried out a “large-scale strike” in the South American country that allowed the seizure of both Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both are said to be headed to the U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that the pair will face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, among other charges.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said, noting Maduro and Flores were indicted in the Southern District of New York.
Previously, in 2020, Maduro was named in an indictment that accused him, and other Venezuelan figures, of turning the South American country into a criminal enterprise that weaponized the drug trade against the U.S. through a partnership with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
“Maduro and the other defendants expressly intended to flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and well-being of our nation,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a quote accompanying the 2020 indictment. “Maduro very deliberately deployed cocaine as a weapon.”
Maduro’s wife was not named in the 2020 indictment.
WTOP’s Ian Crawford spoke with national security correspondent J.J. Green to breakdown the U.S. military operation.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity.