Trump Announces Capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, First Lady in Raid By US Special Forces Over Drugs Peddling, Terrorism Financing

By: Olufemi Orunsola 

Some six years after the Department of Justice in the United States indicted Venezuelan President for involvement in drugs peddling, President Donald Trump has on Saturday, announced the capture of the Venezuelan President and his wife by Special US Forces as Maduro faces fresh charges in New York after what has been described as "the execution of a valid Department of Justice warrant."

OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports as gathered from monitored international media sources that the Venezuelan president and his wife Cilia Flores were dragged from their bedroom and ultimately captured after a large-scale US strike on the Venezuelan city of Caracas on Saturday morning.

Trump has repeatedly accused Maduro’s government of operating a “narco-state,” alleging close links with drug cartels and authorizing expanded U.S. military operations against suspected trafficking routes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Maduro has rejected the accusations, insisting they are a pretext for regime change and renewed U.S. control over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves—the largest in the world.

Trump says he watched how the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured in real-time like "a television show", noting that it was a swift but complex mission which involved breaking through steel doors.

According to CNN's Kit Maher, a visibly proud President Donald Trump said he watched the complex capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro play out in real time "like a television show" from a room in Mar-a-Lago alongside military generals.

Trump was also quoted to have said, “I was told by real military people that there’s no other country on Earth that can do such a maneuver,” Trump told Fox News in a phone interview, adding that, “If you would have seen what happened, I mean, I watched it literally, like I was watching a television show.”

“If you would have seen the, the speed, the violence, you know, they say that the speed, the violence, they use that term. It’s just, it was an amazing thing, amazing job that these people did. There’s nobody else could have done anything like it,” Trump added.

“Well, we watched it from a room. We had a room, and we watched it, and we watched every aspect of it. We were surrounded by lots of people, including generals, and they knew everything that was happening. And it was very complex, extremely complex,” Trump said.

“Really, they just broke in, and they broke into places that were not really able to be, broke into steel doors that was were put there for just this reason, and they got taken out in a matter of seconds. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump continued.

Trump also said that the US had a “massive number” of aircraft on tap, including helicopters and fighter jets.

OTN News further reports that while mixed reactions have trailed the US Military strikes and capture of Maduro, the action has been described basically as an important first step to bring the Venezuelan president who has been dubbed a dictator, to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States."

Trump further hinted that Maduro was bound to appear aboard in New York, where he will face drugs and weapons charges before a Manhattan federal court hinting further that the United States may run the country until further notice.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado said opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia must be installed but Venezuela’s foreign minister insists Maduro remains the country’s leader.

Given this development, the country’s future governance is still being determined as events unfolds in the coming days.

Trump, who also spoke with Fox News has some Americans were injured when a helicopter was hit during the meticulously planned operation.

CNN teams witnessed explosions in Caracas, and reported that some areas of the city were without Venezuelans in Caracas while many people have expressed the belief that the capture of the Venezuelan President there should be herald positive changes for all Venezuelans while others hoped it would translate to a a time of transition in the Caribbean country.

OTN News further gathered that the United States has momentarily paused deportation flights which were ongoing, to Venezuela after Maduro’s capture.

A video now circulating online shows crowds dancing, chanting and singing in Doral, Florida, and Santiago, Chile.

Away from the mixed reactions that have greeted Maduro’s capture in the country, OTN News gathered that Venezuelans abroad, especially those in the United States, have resorted to wild celebrations over the United States' capture of Maduro.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson said they had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio Saturday morning and expect briefings to Congress in the coming days on the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“President Trump’s decisive action to disrupt the unacceptable status quo and apprehend Maduro, through the execution of a valid Department of Justice warrant, is an important first step to bring him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States,” Thune said in a statement.

“I look forward to receiving further briefings from the administration on this operation as part of its comprehensive counternarcotics strategy when the Senate returns to Washington next week,” the Republican Senate leader added.

Johnson said in his own statement that he had also spoken with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “in the last several hours” and that “today’s military action in Venezuela was a decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives.”

The administration, he said, “is working to schedule briefings for Members as Congress returns to Washington next week.”

It is not known when and handthe top lawmaker were specifically notified of the operation.

Maduro and his allies have been accused of turning Venezuelan institutions into a hotbed of drug trafficking-fueled corruption for their own benefit, the Justice Department alleged in the indictment .

That corruption “lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment said.