CIA Conducted Drone Strike on Venezuelan Port Facility

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out a drone strike earlier this month targeting a remote port facility on the coast of Venezuela, according to sources familiar with the matter, marking the first known US strike inside the country, CNN reported.

Sources said the strike hit a dock that US authorities believed was being used by the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua to store narcotics and transfer them onto boats for international trafficking. No casualties were reported, as the facility was unoccupied at the time of the attack.

Two sources said US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the operation. However, this claim was denied by Col. Allie Weiskopf, spokesperson for US Special Operations Command, who said special operations units did not provide intelligence or other support for the strike.

Donald Trump appeared to indirectly acknowledge the operation in an interview last week, referencing the destruction of a “big facility where ships come from.” When asked again on Monday, Trump said the US had targeted “the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” but declined to specify whether the CIA or the military carried out the strike.

The operation could significantly escalate tensions between Washington and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the US has been pressuring to step down. Trump’s administration has pursued an aggressive campaign against Venezuela, including a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers and repeated warnings of direct action.

The US has previously carried out strikes destroying more than 30 suspected drug-trafficking boats in international waters as part of a counter-narcotics campaign. Until this incident, however, no confirmed US strikes had taken place inside Venezuelan territory.

The CIA declined to comment on the report. CNN said it had sought responses from the White House, US Special Operations Command, and Venezuela’s ministries of communications and foreign affairs, but no official responses had been issued at the time of publication.