Covert CIA Team Reportedly Carried Out Sabotage Operations In Venezuela To Pave Way For Maduro's Capture

A covert CIA team carried out sabotage operations in Venezuela to pave the way for the capture of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro earlier in January, according to a new report.

Officials told The New York Times that the agency's more aggressive stance in the region is already producing results. Concretely, CIA director John Ratcliffe said intelligence collection in Latin America has increased by more than 50% since he took office. The number of human sources also climbed by 61%.

Elsewhere in the report, the outlet noted that the CIA team spent months surveilling Maduro's moves and recruited people for that purpose. They also gave real-time intelligence to military commanders before and during the January 3 operation.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the CIA and intelligence agencies for their role in the operation: "We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional."

The operation encountered one major issue: the helicopter that led it got hit but managed to remain flyable.

The New York Times reported that the aircraft in question was a twin-rotor MH-47 Chinook. The flight leader, who also planned the mission and was piloting the helicopter, was struck three times in the leg, the outlet added, citing current and former U.S. officials.

"Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission," said Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after the mission ended. The helicopter managed to land, let the commandos execute their part of the mission and land back safely on the USS Iwo Jima off the Venezuelan coast.

More than 80 commandos entered Maduro's compound and after a firefight with his security detail, they opened a door leading to his bedroom, where he was captured along with his wife Cilia Flores as they tried to escape into a reinforced room.

Fresh helicopters then returned the commandos and those captured to the USS Iwo Jima, avoiding hostile fire on their way out.