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The U.S. navy carried out a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela Saturday morning, capturing the nation’s dictatorial chief, Nicolás Maduro, who will face sweeping legal fees on U.S. soil, in keeping with an unsealed indictment launched by Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi.
Maduro, who was elected in 2013 and served as Hugo Chavez’s vp, is going through fees of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine weapons and damaging units and conspiracy to own machine weapons and damaging units in opposition to the U.S.
“It is simply — it was an incredible factor, the superb job that these individuals did. There’s no one else may have accomplished something prefer it,” Trump stated of the operation.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro addresses supporters throughout a rally marking the anniversary of the Nineteenth-century Battle of Santa Ines in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 10, 2025. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
The unsealed indictment focuses on how Maduro allegedly enriched himself and “political elites” by reportedly partnering with vicious gangs and drug cartels which have established syndicates throughout the Western Hemisphere, together with within the U.S., resembling New York. The indictment lists six people as defendants, together with Maduro, his spouse, his son and Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the alleged chief of a vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The indictment alleges that Maduro “sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate authorities that, for many years, has leveraged authorities energy to guard and promote criminality, together with drug trafficking.”
President Donald Trump has railed in opposition to drug cartels for spreading lethal narcotics resembling fentanyl in U.S. communities, resulting in lots of of 1000’s of overdose deaths since 2000. Trump has directed his ire at gangs resembling Tren de Aragua, which Trump designated a overseas terrorist group final 12 months.
The indictment accuses Maduro and his co-conspirators — together with Venezuelan Inside Minister Diosdado Cabello and former Inside Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín — of partnering with narco-terrorists, together with the Tren de Aragua gang and its chief, to distribute cocaine since not less than 1999.
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“In sum, MADURO MOROS and his co-conspirators have, for many years, partnered with a number of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists on the planet, and relied on corrupt officers all through the area, to distribute tons of cocaine to the USA,” the indictment states.
On this handout picture supplied by the Salvadoran authorities, guards escort inmates allegedly linked to legal organizations at CECOT jail March 16, 2025, in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The Trump administration deported 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan legal organizations Tren De Aragua and MS-13. (Salvadoran Authorities by way of Getty Photographs)
The indictment alleges that Maduro “participates in, perpetuates, and protects a tradition of corruption by which highly effective Venezuelan elites enrich themselves via drug trafficking and the safety of their associate drug traffickers.” The indictment says defendants labored in coordination with cartels and gangs resembling Mexico’s Zetas, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Colombian group ELN, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—Folks’s Military and Tren de Aragua.
“TdA has expanded its legal community all through the Western Hemisphere and established a presence in the USA, together with New York,” the indictment stated. “TdA’s legal actions embrace human smuggling and different illicit acts. TdA has developed extra income sources via a variety of different legal actions, together with drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, industrial intercourse trafficking, kidnapping, theft, theft, fraud, and extortion. TdA members additionally commit homicide, assault, and different acts of violence to implement and additional the group’s legal actions.”
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Trump has repeatedly accused Maduro of working with cartels, whereas underscoring how the overseas gangs have infiltrated the U.S. and unfold violence and habit.
President Donald Trump speaks to a gathering of high U.S. navy commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (Evan Vucci/AP Picture)
“TdA operates along side Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolás Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based mostly in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, together with murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking,” Trump wrote in a March 2025 presidential proclamation.
He doubled down in his press convention on Saturday, warning that “all political and navy figures in Venezuela ought to perceive what occurred to Maduro can occur to them.”
Venezuela has argued that Tren de Aragua is now not an lively cartel and was successfully worn out in 2023, Reuters beforehand reported.
Maduro and 14 different present and former Venezuelan officers had been beforehand charged by U.S. federal prosecutors in 2020 on narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking allegations. The January 2025 indictment expands on the 2020 doc, together with including Maduro’s son and spouse as defendants.
The Venezuelan authorities stated in a press release following Saturday’s strike that “the civilian and navy localities of town of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira” had been impacted by the assault.
The nation accused the U.S. of committing a “very severe navy aggression” in opposition to Venezuela and finishing up “imperialist aggression.”
“The target of this assault is none aside from to grab Venezuela’s strategic assets, significantly its oil and minerals, trying to interrupt the Nation’s political independence by power,” the Authorities of Venezuela stated in a press release. “They won’t succeed. After greater than 200 years of independence, the individuals and their authentic Authorities stay steadfast in protection of sovereignty and the inalienable proper to resolve their very own future.”
Pictured are 17 alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and members of the MS-13 gang, who had been deported to El Salvador. (El Salvador Press Presidency Workplace/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs)
Trump stated on Fox Information that Maduro and his spouse had been flown by helicopter to a U.S. navy ship. The couple might be transported to New York Metropolis, the place the dictator is predicted to face trial.
“Sure, the Iwo Jima,” Trump stated on Saturday morning on Fox Information. “They’re going to be heading into New York. The helicopters took them out, they usually glided by helicopter on a pleasant flight. I am certain they beloved it, however they’ve killed lots of people.”
The president stated he watched the operation from Mar-a-Lago, the place he spent the Christmas vacation, and praised the navy for its efforts.
Democrats have taken subject with an absence of discover to Congress over the strike, whereas MAGA Republicans have rallied round Trump’s choice.
Trump held a information convention at Mar-a-Lago Saturday, the place he stated the U.S. will “run” Venezuela till there’s a protected transition of energy.
“We’ll run the nation till such time as we will do a protected, correct and even handed transition. So, we do not need to be concerned with having anyone else get in. And we’ve the identical scenario that we had for the final lengthy interval of years. So, we’re going to run the nation till such time as we will do a protected, correct and even handed transition. And it must be even handed as a result of that is what we’re all about. We wish peace, liberty and justice for the good individuals of Venezuela,” he stated.
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The seize and strike follows the U.S. navy finishing up dozens of strikes on suspected narco-boats since September. Trump campaigned partially on ending the stream of lethal narcotics resembling fentanyl from different nations, which has result in surges in overdose deaths throughout the final twenty years, together with leveling tariffs on China to curb the stream of such medication and strengthening the U.S. borders.
Democrat lawmakers are more and more turning up the warmth on the Trump administration over its sequence of navy strikes on suspected overseas drug-trafficking boats within the Caribbean. (@realDonaldTrump by way of Fact Social)
Democrats have slammed the Trump administration over its strikes on the suspected narco-boats, with Trump saying the U.S. is engaged in an “armed battle” with drug cartels after the teams developed into transnational terror organizations. Officers beforehand argued the strikes had been essential to scale back opioid deaths within the U.S., whereas consultants stated the stress marketing campaign on Venezuela is probably going aimed to additionally oust Maduro as chief of the oil-rich nation.
“We have knocked out 97% of the medication coming in by sea … every boat kills 25, on common, 25,000 individuals. We knocked out 97%. And people medication principally come from a spot referred to as Venezuela,” Trump stated Saturday of the boat strikes.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes fingers along with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro. (Maxim Shemetov/AFP/Getty Photographs)
Overseas adversaries condemned the U.S. over the strike, together with the Chinese language Overseas Ministry, which reported Saturday that the nation is “deeply shocked and strongly condemns using power by the U.S. in opposition to a sovereign nation and using power in opposition to the president of a rustic.”
Russia, which is a vital ally to Venezuela, additionally condemned the strike and seize in public statements.
“This morning, the USA dedicated an act of armed aggression in opposition to Venezuela. That is deeply regarding and condemnable,” the Russia Overseas Ministry stated in a press release Saturday. “The pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded. Ideological animosity has prevailed over enterprise pragmatism and the willingness to construct relationships based mostly on belief and predictability.”
Bondi warned on X that Maduro and his spouse “will quickly face the complete wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
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“On behalf of the whole U.S. DOJ, I wish to thank President Trump for having the braveness to demand accountability on behalf of the American Folks, and an enormous thanks to our courageous navy who carried out the unbelievable and extremely profitable mission to seize these two alleged worldwide narco traffickers,” Bondi wrote.
Fox Information Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.
