Trump says U.S. "knocked out" a "big facility" linked to alleged drug boats
Washington — President Trump says the U.S. "knocked out" a "big facility" last week linked to alleged drug boat operations, although he didn't offer many details.
"There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," Mr. Trump said Monday as he spoke to reporters at Mar-a-Lago.
In a radio interview Friday, the president said the U.S. hit the facility "very hard" two nights before. The president didn't offer the location of the facility, but he has been threatening land strikes in Venezuela following a string of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
"We just knocked out, I don't know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send, where the ships come from," Mr. Trump said after calling into "Sid and Friends in the Morning" on 77 WABC Friday. "Two nights ago, we knocked that out, so we hit them very hard."
On Monday, he added that it had struck what he called "the implementation area," adding, "that is no longer around."
The The New York Times reported that president was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela. CNN reported that the CIA used a drone strike to carry out the attack.
The CIA declined to comment on its reported involvement in this operation.
The Trump administration has not disclosed any more details about the strike. On Tuesday, Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for U.S. Special Operations Command said in a statement, "Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support."
The Pentagon referred questions to the White House. The White House has not yet responded to CBS News' request for comment.
Since September, the U.S. military has targeted more than two dozen boats the administration alleged were ferrying drugs, killing at least 107 people in the strikes. The 30th boat strike took place in the eastern Pacific on Monday, killing two people on board, U.S. Southern Command announced.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations — which Maduro denies. The U.S. has built up a heightened military presence in the region and recently seized two sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela's coast.