U.S. Captures Venezuela’s President and First Lady in Overnight Attack, Trump Announces

President Donald Trump has launched military strikes in Venezuela in an effort to dismantle the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Having accused the Venezuelan president of drug-related crimes, Trump, 79, confirmed the order of “large-scale strikes” in the region and the capture of Maduro, 63, in a statement on Truth Social on Saturday, Jan. 3.

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country,” wrote Trump. “This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”

The president added that a news conference sharing more details on the matter will be held at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., at 11 a.m. local time.

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Trump ordered airstrikes on various sites in Venezuela early morning on Saturday, including the capital, Caracas, and on military bases, officials told CBS News and the BBC. This comes as the U.S. military presence has recently increased in the region, with several warships positioned in the Caribbean.

Maduro is accused by Trump of drug trafficking and “forcing” migration to the US. The Venezuelan president is also accused of using oil money to fund his alleged drug-related crimes, all of which he has denied, per CBS News.

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Footage of the strikes shows explosions followed by trails of smoke and fire as people fled early on Saturday.

Among the locations struck were the main military base, Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas, the main airbase, La Carlota, in Caracas, El Volcán, and La Guaira Port on the Caribbean coast, David Smolansky, a spokesman for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, told CBS News.

Maduro denounced the attacks in a statement, accusing the U.S. of trying to “seize Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals” and “forcibly break the nation’s political independence,” per the BBC.

According to the outlet, the Venezuelan president has instructed all national defense plans to be implemented and urged “all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and condemn this imperialist attack.”

The U.S. has launched 30 strikes since September in targeted areas in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and on speed boats allegedly carrying drugs through the region. More than 110 people have been killed since the strikes began, per the BBC. The U.S. forces have also reportedly confiscated two sanctioned oil tankers while pursuing a third.

Trump previously warned about the imminent order of strikes in Venezuela. “We’re going to start doing those strikes on land, too … the land is much easier … And we know the routes they take. We know everything about them … We know where the bad ones live,” he said during a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting, per CBS News.

Before the strikes, Maduro said in an interview on Venezuelan state TV that he was open to talking with the U.S. administration about drug trafficking, oil and migration issues, per the BBC.

PEOPLE has reached out to the White House for comment.