CIA Hit Alleged Gang-Controlled Dock Used To Load Drug Boats In Venezuela: Report

The CIA hit what has been described as a remote dock in the Venezuelan coast believed to be used by the Tren de Aragua gang to load drugs onto vessels that would then journey through the Caribbean, according to a new report.

CNN cited sources with knowledge of the attack who said no one was present at the facility and there were no casualties. It added that Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support, but a spokesperson for the US Special Operations Command, Col. Allie Weiskopf, said that was not the case.

Trump acknowledged the strike on Monday but refused to disclose who was behind it. Speaking to press along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday, Trump was asked whether the U.S. military or the CIA had conducted the attack.

"Well, I don't want to say that. I know exactly who it was, but I don't want who it was. It was along the shore," Trump said.

Earlier, he claimed "there was a major explosion" in the "dock area where they load up the boats with drugs."

"We hit the boats now we hit the implementation area. It's no longer around," Trump added.

The Venezuelan regime has so far refrained from confirming the strike, revealed by Trump on December 26 while speaking with The Cats & Cosby Show. There, Trump said that U.S. forces had carried out a strike days before Christmas against what he described as a major installation linked to drug trafficking.

The president did not specify the location of the facility, the type of forces involved, or how the operation was conducted. U.S. officials later said Trump was referring to a drug-related site in Venezuela, but provided no further details. The Venezuelan regime has not commented on the matter.

In another passage of the piece, CNN quoted a source who said the strike was successful in destroying the facility and the boats, but was largely symbolic given the sheer amount of infrastructure such organizations have in the country.