The U.S. military carried out a “massive strike” in Venezuela on Saturday morning, capturing the country’s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro and facing sweeping criminal charges on U.S. soil, according to an unsealed indictment unsealed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Maduro, who was elected in 2013 and served as Vice President under Hugo Chavez, faces charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine import conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States
“It’s just – it’s a great thing, these guys do a great job. No one else can do anything like this,” Trump said of the operation.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks to supporters during a rally to commemorate the anniversary of the 19th-century Battle of Santa Ynez in Caracas, Venezuela, December 10, 2025.
The unsealed indictment focuses on how Maduro allegedly enriched himself and “political elites” by working with nefarious gangs and drug cartels that have built criminal enterprises in the Western Hemisphere, including in the United States, including New York. The indictment names six defendants, including Maduro, his wife, son and Héctor Rustenford Guerrero Flores, the leader of the Venezuelan evil gang Tren de Aragua.
Maduro “led a corrupt, illegitimate government that for decades used government power to protect and promote illegal activities, including drug trafficking,” the indictment said.
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President Donald Trump has blamed drug cartels for spreading deadly narcotics such as fentanyl in American communities, leading to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths since 2000. Trump has directed his ire at criminal gangs such as Tren de Aragua, which he designated as a foreign terrorist organization last year.
The indictment alleges that Maduro and his co-conspirators – including Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and former Interior Minister Ramon Rodríguez Chacin – worked with narco-terrorists, including the Tron de Aragua gang and its leaders, to distribute cocaine since at least 1999.
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“In summary, Maduro Moros and his co-conspirators worked for decades with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world and relied on corrupt officials throughout the region to distribute large quantities of cocaine into the United States,” the indictment states.
In this handout photo provided by the government of El Salvador, guards escort inmates with alleged ties to criminal organizations at the CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 16, 2025. The Trump administration deported 238 suspected members of the Venezuelan criminal organizations Tren De Aragua and MS-13.
Maduro “participated in, perpetuated and protected a culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and protection of their fellow drug traffickers,” the indictment said. The indictment alleges that the defendants colluded with cartels and gangs including Zeta Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, Colombia’s National Liberation Army, FARC Popular and Trende Aragua.
“TdA has expanded its criminal network throughout the Western Hemisphere and established a presence in the United States, including New York,” the indictment states. “TdA’s criminal activities include human smuggling and other illegal acts. TdA develops additional revenue streams through a range of other criminal activities, including drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, commercial sex trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, theft, fraud, and extortion. TdA members also commit murders, assaults, and other acts of violence to carry out and facilitate the organization’s criminal activities.”
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Trump has repeatedly accused Maduro of working with cartels while highlighting how foreign gangs infiltrate the United States and spread violence and drug addiction.
President Donald Trump speaks to top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, September 30, 2025.
“TdA works with Cártel de los Soles, the Venezuelan narco-terrorist enterprise backed by the Nicolás Maduro regime, to commit brutal crimes, including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking,” Trump wrote in a March 2025 presidential proclamation.
He doubled down at a press conference on Saturday, warning that “all political and military figures in Venezuela should understand that what happened to Maduro can happen to them.”
Venezuela argued that Tren de Aragua was no longer an active cartel and was effectively eliminated in 2023, Reuters previously reported.
Maduro and 14 other current and former Venezuelan officials were previously charged by U.S. federal prosecutors in 2020 with narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking. The January 2025 indictment expanded on the 2020 filing, including adding Maduro’s son and wife as defendants.
The Venezuelan government said in a statement after Saturday’s attack that “the city of Caracas, the republic’s capital, and civilian and military areas in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira” were affected.
The country accuses the United States of carrying out “very serious military aggression” and “imperialist aggression” against Venezuela.
The Venezuelan government said in a statement: “The purpose of this attack is to seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, especially oil and minerals, in an attempt to undermine the country’s political independence by force.” “They will not succeed. More than two hundred years after independence, the people and their legitimate government still firmly defend their sovereignty and the inalienable right to decide their own destiny.”
Pictured here are 17 alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs who were deported to El Salvador.
Trump said on Fox News that Maduro and his wife flew by helicopter to a U.S. warship. The couple will be flown to New York City, where the dictator is expected to face trial.
“Yes, Iwo Jima,” Trump said on Fox News Saturday morning. “They were going to New York. The helicopter got them out and they had a nice flight in the helicopter. I’m sure they loved it, but they had killed a lot of people.”
The president said he watched the operation from Mar-a-Lago over the Christmas holidays and praised the military’s efforts.
Democrats expressed displeasure that Congress was not notified of the strike, while MAGA-minded Republicans rallied around Trump’s decision.
At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, Trump said the United States would “manage” Venezuela until there is a safe transition of power.
“We are going to govern this country until we can have a safe, appropriate and wise transition. So we don’t want to involve others. Our situation is the same as it has been for a long time. So, we are going to govern this country until we are able to have a safe, appropriate and wise transition. It has to be wise because that is what we are all about. We want peace, freedom and justice for the great country of the Venezuelan people,” he said.
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The capture and crackdown follows dozens of U.S. military raids on suspected drug-trafficking vessels since September. Part of Trump’s campaign goals was to stem the flow of deadly narcotics like fentanyl from other countries that have contributed to a surge in drug overdose deaths over the past two decades, including raising tariffs on China to curb the flow of such drugs and tightening U.S. borders.
Democrats have blasted the Trump administration’s crackdown on suspected drug ships, with Trump saying the United States is in “an armed conflict” with drug cartels after they morphed into transnational terrorist organizations. Officials have previously argued that the crackdowns are necessary to reduce opioid deaths in the United States, while experts say the pressure campaign on Venezuela may also be aimed at ousting Maduro as leader of the oil-rich country.
“We’ve eliminated 97 percent of the drugs at sea…killing an average of 25 people per ship, or 25,000 people. We’ve eliminated 97 percent. Most of these drugs are coming from a place called Venezuela,” Trump said Saturday of the ship attacks.
US military destroys three anti-narcotics terrorist convoys in kinetic strike at sea
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Foreign adversaries including China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. attack, which reported on Saturday that China was “deeply shocked by this and strongly condemns the U.S.’s use of force against a sovereign country and the use of force against the president of a country.”
Russia, an important ally of Venezuela, also condemned the attack and arrests in public statements.
“This morning, the United States carried out an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This is deeply worrying and condemnable,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. “The excuses used to justify such actions are unfounded. Ideological hostility has trumped commercial pragmatism and the will to build relations based on trust and predictability.”
Bondi warned on X that Maduro and his wife “will soon face the full wrath of American justice in American courts.”
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“On behalf of the entire U.S. Department of Justice, I want to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American people, and am deeply grateful to our brave troops who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two suspected international drug traffickers,” Bondi wrote.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.
Original source of the article: Maduro-backed TdA gang’s expansion into U.S. cities becomes focus of Justice Department’s sweeping prosecution
