Venezuela airstrikes live: Updates as explosions heard in Caracas

Sources told ABC News that Nicolas Maduro is being flown to New York, where he will face a federal trial on drug trafficking charges.

Although it hasn’t been confirmed where he will be held, defendants facing trial in the state’s southern district are typically held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Luigi Mangione is currently serving time at MDC as he awaits a murder trial.

The high-profile facility has also housed the likes of Diddy, R. Kelly, and Ghislaine Maxwell.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Nicolas Maduro will ‘soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts’ after he was arrested in Venezuela.

Writing on social media early Saturday morning, Bondi cited the indictment against Maduro charging him with ‘Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.’

Maduro was indicted by the Southern District of New York in 2020, but it wasn’t clear what his exact whereabouts were on Saturday morning.

Bondi thanked Trump and the US military, who she said ‘conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.’

Nicolas Maduro is facing criminal drug trafficking charges from a 2020 indictment during Donald Trump’s first term.

Maduro was charged with ‘narco-terrorism’ and conspiracy to import cocaine.

The Trump administration offered a $15 million bounty at the time, which was increased to $25 million last January.

The US president increased the bounty again in August to $50 million. The Trump administration has maintained that Maduro is the leader of a terrorist organization called the Cartel de los Soles.

Trump revealed in an interview with Fox News that Maduro and Flores were aboard the US warship Iwo Jima en route to New York.

The couple will be prosecuted on federal charges in the Southern District of New York.

A CIA source in the Venezuelan government reportedly monitored Maduro’s location leading up to the military raid, those briefed on the operation told the New York Times.

Maduro’s location was reportedly tracked by drones, and the source was recruited by the American government to monitor the president.

The Trump administration previously put a $50 million bounty on Maduro to incentivize information on his whereabouts.

Although a CIA source contributed vital information, the raid to capture Maduro was completed by the US military.

A source described the partnership between the two agencies as involving ‘months of meticulous planning,’ according to the New York Times.

Trump said during a phone call with Fox News that Maduro wanted to negotiate days before US forces captured him.

‘I didn’t want to negotiate,’ Trump told the station.

‘I said, “Nope, we got to do it.”‘

The president added that the US will be heavily involved in the next steps for Venezuelan leadership.

Sources familiar with the US military operation told CNN that Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were dragged from their bedroom during the raid.

The pair was reportedly captured in the middle of the night while they slept.

Trump said he would announce more details about the raid at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago at 11 am.

It’s unclear where Maduro will be held, but defendants facing trial in the Southern District of New York are typically held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández also told the Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their home during the raid.

‘That’s where they bombed,’ he said.

‘And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.’

Vic President JD Vance defended the legality of the US military’s invasion of Venezeula, claiming Maduro’s multiple indictments justified his capture.

‘You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas,’ Vance wrote in a post on X.

In a separate post, Vance said: ‘The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States.

‘Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.’

As dawn breaks in the capital of Venezeula, citizens have awoken to destruction from the US military intervention.

Crowds in Venezeula congregated in Caracas after Maduro was captured to protest US military intervention.

Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined the crowd to demand that Maduro be returned immediately, the Associated Press reported.

‘We are here Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!’ the crowd chanted.

Donald Trump hailed Maduro’s capture as a ‘brilliant operation’ during a phone call with The New York Times just after 4 am.

‘A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people. It was a brilliant operation, actually,’ he said.

When asked whether he sought congressional authority before the military operation, Trump said he would discuss it this afternoon in a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

While the US government has praised the operation, Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has demanded to see ‘proof of life’ for Maduro and his wife.

Venezuela’s attorney general Tarek William Saab condemned the US intervention, saying in televised remarks: ‘Innocent victims have been mortally wounded and others killed by this criminal terrorist attack.’

The Chilean government condemned US military action in Venezuela and called for a peaceful solution.

President Gabriel Boric Font wrote on social media that his country reaffirmed its commitment to the principles of international law, including the prohibition of the use of force, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and the principle of territorial integrity.

‘The Venezuelan crisis must be resolved through dialogue and the support of multilateralism, and not through violence or foreign interference,’ Font concluded.