CIA Drone Strike Targets Venezuelan Drug Port
The CIA reportedly carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a dock in Venezuela suspected of being used for drug trafficking, marking the first known U.S. land strike inside the country since Washington intensified its operations against Venezuela’s narco-trafficking networks.
According to CNN sources, U.S. authorities said the dock was used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store and ship drugs overseas. The strike reportedly destroyed the port without causing any casualties.
President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the action in a Dec. 26 radio interview, saying U.S. forces hit a “big facility” where traffickers loaded boats with drugs.
The incident marks the latest escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela following the U.S. Coast Guard’s seizure of a second sanctioned oil tanker last week and months of strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Trump confirmed in October that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and has repeatedly threatened land strikes against drug-smuggling cartels. “You probably noticed that people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” he told military personnel on Thanksgiving.
The Venezuelan government has not issued any statement regarding the strike.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Southern Command reported its latest boat strike on Monday, which killed two alleged narco-terrorists. The strike marks the 30th known U.S. military action against suspected narco-trafficking vessels since early September, bringing the reported death toll to roughly 106.
