President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States struck and destroyed a docking area used by alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers, a move that could mark the first land strike in Washington’s expanding campaign against drug smuggling from Latin America.

Trump confirmed the incident as his administration intensifies pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom U.S. officials accuse of leading a criminal enterprise and seeking to undermine regional security.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he was hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“So 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.

Trump declined to say whether the operation was carried out by the U.S. military or the CIA, or to specify the location, saying only that it occurred “along the shore.”

Asked whether he had recently spoken with Maduro, Trump said they had talked “pretty recently,” but added that “nothing much comes out of it.”

Earlier comments detailed

Trump was pressed to clarify remarks he made during a radio interview broadcast Friday that appeared to reference a land strike for the first time.

“They have a big plant or a big facility where they send, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump told WABC radio host John Catsimatidis in New York.

“Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard,” he said.

Trump offered no additional details about the facility’s location or the scope of the strike.

There was no immediate comment from the Venezuelan government.

The Pentagon earlier referred questions to the White House, which did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump has warned for weeks that ground strikes against drug cartels in the region would begin “soon,” but Monday’s remarks appeared to mark the first confirmation of such an operation.

Fresh U.S. strike in Pacific

U.S. forces have carried out numerous strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington describes as drug-smuggling boats.

The administration has not provided evidence that the vessels were involved in trafficking, fueling debate over the legality of the operations.

International law experts and human rights groups have argued that the strikes may constitute extrajudicial killings, a claim the U.S. government rejects.

After Trump spoke on Monday, the U.S. military announced on X that it had carried out another deadly strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific, killing two people.

The announcement brought the reported death toll in the maritime campaign to at least 107. The military did not disclose the location of the latest strike.

The Trump administration has steadily increased pressure on Maduro, accusing him of running a drug cartel and enforcing an oil tanker blockade aimed at cutting off revenue to his government.