Trump claims in a radio interview that the US destroyed a drug trafficking facility in Venezuela

In a surprisingly unnoticed radio interview with billionaire John Catsimatidis and host Rita Cosby, President Donald Trump confirmed that the U.S. destroyed a drug trafficking facility in Venezuela.

"We just knocked out, I don't know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant, or a big facility where the ships come from: Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard," Trump said without giving further details.

So far, the president's words are the only ones about the alleged U.S. attack. No other agency or administration official spoke on the matter or announced the operation. Nor was there any matching coverage in other international or local media.

In the early morning of December 24, an explosion was reported in Venezuela. The event occurred in San Francisco, Zulia state, in a building belonging to Primazol, a chemical products factory. So far, there is no evidence linking this incident to Trump's statements or to a U.S. military operation.

If the attack is confirmed, it would be the first ground operation against drug trafficking, marking the beginning of the already famous and expected "phase II" of the U.S. fight against narcoterrorism in the region.

The president's words, moreover, come in a context of intensifying pressure from Washington against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, which Trump has repeatedly described as a "terrorist organization" and a direct threat to the United States.

In recent months, his administration designated Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles, an organization that Washington links to the Chavista power and military circle, as terrorist organizations.

The U.S. also raised the reward for information leading to the capture of Maduro to $50,000,000, who faces charges in U.S. federal courts for drug trafficking and narco-terrorist conspiracy. In addition, the president has denounced that the Chavista leader "stole" the elections of July 28, 2024, qualifying him as an illegitimate ruler.

These statements are also part of a broader U.S. military campaign in the Caribbean and the Pacific, where U.S. forces have executed attacks against vessels linked to international drug trafficking, under the argument of fighting "narco-terrorists" who supply drugs to the U.S. market.

Previously, Trump had announced that the U.S. would start attacking drug laboratories on land, directly threatening drug cartels linked to Maduro and the rest of the narco-terrorist organizations in the region. So far, however, the matter remains unconfirmed.