It took only hours for US forces to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his heavily fortified compound in Caracas and transport him to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center to face narco-terrorism charges.
The daring mission, dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve,” saw the dictator travel across the Caribbean via helicopter, amphibious assault ship and military plane on Saturday, with a stint in Guantánamo Bay, before arriving in New York to face federal charges.
The operation to capture Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, began at around 10:46 p.m. EST on Friday when President Trump gave the final order for the US to attack Venezuela.
Trump and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces were able to reach Fort Tiuna, the “heavily fortified military fortress” in Caracas where Maduro was hiding, by 1 a.m. on Saturday,
Delta Force troops were then able to breach Maduro’s residence inside the compound following a firefight, catching the dictator “completely by surprise,” Caine added.
With Maduro unable to reach his steel safe room in time, the US troops were able to take him and his wife into custody, flying out of Caracas by 3:30 a.m.
The helicopter then landed aboard the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship, which was stationed just off the coast of Venezuela after Trump had ordered dozens of warships to mobilize in the Caribbean in 2025.
The Iwo Jima, commissioned in 2001, stands at 840 feet in length with a flight deck width of 140 feet, according to USCarriers.net.
The vessel had provided emergency relief and evacuation services in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and similar services during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War.
While aboard the USS Iwo Jima, Maduro was photographed in a sweatsuit while handcuffed and blindfolded in a now-viral pic shared by the White House on X.
The Iwo Jima was seen sailing about 100 miles off the coast of Venezuela at around 11 a.m., according to satellite images taken by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite.
From there, Maduro was flown to the US Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Havana, which has long complained about the US military base on its land, had been a staunch supporter of Maduro.
Maduro notably had Cuban bodyguards and intelligence officers serving him after the dictator reportedly grew paranoid of traitors within his inner circle.
After the handoff in Guantánamo, Maduro and his wife were flown to the Stewart Air National Guard Base, in Newburgh, New York, where they arrived by 4:30 p.m.
From there, the couple was flown to New York City’s West 30th Street Heliport, where they were hauled away to the DEA Headquarters in Chelsea on board a heavily armed tactical vehicle called a “Bearcat.”
Maduro and his wife were then brought back to the West Side Heliport and taken to Brooklyn to be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
