Trump Confirms U.S. Hit Drug Boat Loading Facility in Venezuela on Christmas Eve

President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that a covert United States operation struck a drug boat loading facility in Venezuela last week, marking the first land strike on the country since the Pentagon began launching missile strikes on drug boats in the region.

Trump said the Christmas Eve attack targeted the “implementation area” where drugs are loaded onto vessels, and indicated the facility was completely destroyed.

The president addressed the issue during a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump told reporters.

“So we hit all the boats and now we hit the implementation area … where they implement and that’s no longer around,” he added.

When asked if the CIA had carried out the attack, Trump said: “I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was but I don’t want to say who it was.”

In October, Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.

“I authorized for two reasons really. Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America … they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border,” Trump said. “And the other thing are drugs.”

The president initially referenced the strike during a radio interview on December 26, when he called into WABC radio and stated, “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So, we hit them very hard.”

Since early September 2025, the U.S. has conducted 29 known strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats, resulting in at least 105 deaths. The Trump administration has framed these actions as part of an armed conflict with drug cartels aiming to stop narcotics from reaching the United States.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has rejected the U.S. rationale, asserting that the real aim of these operations is to remove him from power.

“I authorized for two reasons really. Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America … they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And the other thing are drugs,” he added.

Video footage posted online on December 24 appeared to show an explosion from an industrial zone in Zulia, a northwestern state in Venezuela, the Guardian reported.

Military officials have been hush-hush about the strike and the CIA declined to provide a comment to the the New York Times.

The Venezuelan government has not commented on the incident.