Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were captured by U.S. forces in an early-morning raid Saturday inside Caracas, are currently being held in a U.S. warship off the coast of the South American country and will be transported to New York to face criminal charges, President Donald Trump said.

In an interview on Fox News, Trump described the mission as a “surgical” strike carried out after days of preparation, multiple failed attempts to secure Maduro’s surrender and what he called an escalating national security threat tied to drug trafficking.

“They’re heading to New York,” Trump said. “They were indicted in New York.”

A fortress, a blackout, helicopters

Trump said U.S. special operations forces entered Caracas under near-total darkness after power was cut across much of the city. The target, he said, was a residence “more like a fortress than a house,” with steel doors, reinforced corridors and a sealed inner “safety space.”

U.S. forces were prepared to breach that inner room using heavy cutting equipment, Trump said, but the operation moved faster than anticipated.

“He didn’t make it to that area,” Trump said referring to Maduro. “We were prepared.”

Maduro and his wife were extracted by helicopter and flown offshore to the USS Iwo Jima, a U.S. Navy assault ship operating as part of a larger flotilla in the Caribbean, Trump said. From there, they are being transferred to the United States.

Helicopter hit, possible Injuries

Trump acknowledged that at least one U.S. helicopter was hit during the operation and that some troops may have been injured. He said he did not have a final casualty report but believed there were no fatalities.

“I don’t think anybody was killed,” Trump said. “But I don’t have an updated status yet.”

Trump praised the troops involved, describing them as entering a hostile urban environment with armed resistance.

“They went into a dark space with machine guns facing them all over the place,” he said. “They did an incredible job.”

Trump said he watched the operation unfold live from his home in Mar-a-Lago.

Failed ‘off-ramps’ and a final decision

According to Trump, the operation followed several attempts to persuade Maduro to step down peacefully. He said he personally spoke with Maduro and offered what he described as “off-ramps” — surrender and relinquishment of power.

“I told him, you have to give up,” Trump said. “It was close. But in the end, he didn’t.”

Trump said the decision to proceed was driven by what he described as the scale of the U.S. drug crisis.

“We’re losing 300,000 people a year,” he said. “We don’t lose that much in a war.”

He argued that U.S. maritime operations have sharply reduced drug shipments by sea and said Maduro’s capture was part of a broader campaign to disrupt trafficking networks.

What happens next?

Trump said Maduro had little remaining support inside Venezuela and claimed that some people were seen in the streets waving American flags following the operation.

“If they stay loyal, the future is really bad for them,” Trump said of the regime’s remaining officials. “If they convert, that’s different.”

Under Venezuela’s constitution, the vice president would assume power if Maduro is removed. Trump said the United States is evaluating its next steps and stopped short of endorsing a specific opposition leader, including María Corina Machado, the recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

“We’re going to have to look at it,” he said.

Trump said the U.S. intends to remain involved in Venezuela’s transition, at least diplomatically, to prevent the country from falling back under what he described as criminal or extremist influence.

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