Trump expands on details of first ground attack against drug trafficking in Venezuela, reveals unsuccessful contact with Maduro

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday expanded on statements made days earlier about an attack on a port area in Venezuela used for loading drugs onto ships. The comments came during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Trump said the operation, which marked the first ground attack against drug trafficking, caused a "major explosion" in the dock area and was part of U.S. efforts to combat drug trafficking. "We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area... it's the implementation area. That's where they implement, and that is no longer around," he said, without offering additional information on the exact location or scope of the attack.

Continuing statements made days earlier

Monday's comments expanded on statements made by Trump last week on a radio program, where he referred to a recent action in Venezuela against an infrastructure used for the shipment of drugs. On that occasion, the president stated, "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."

In both speeches, Trump described the operation as a direct hit against maritime drug trafficking routes, without detailing which U.S. government agency executed the action.

Trump avoids identifying the agency responsible

Asked whether the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the attack, Trump responded that he knew exactly who had carried out the operation, but would not disclose that information.

No official reaction from Venezuela

The Venezuelan dictatorial regime has not commented on the U.S. president's statements and no official communiqués related to the attack described above have been reported. Nor have independent reports been released from Venezuela on the incident mentioned by Trump.