'Good Night, Happy New Year': Venezuelan President Maduro's First Words As He Reaches NYC After Being Captured By US | WATCH

New Delhi: United States on Saturday captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured during a surprise attack by special US forces on the Venezuelan capital Caracas, early Saturday (local time). They were reportedly sleeping inside their residence at Caracas' high-security Ft Tiuna military compound during the pre-dawn raid.

New Visuals showed captured President Maduro being escorted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers inside the agency's headquarters in New York on Saturday.

The deposed leader, while being taken to the DEA office, offered calm New Year greetings to people accompanying him.

A video of 63-year-old leader, handcuffed and in a black hooded sweatshirt, walking down a hallway with a blue carpet labelled “DEA NYD” smiling and saying “Good night, Happy New Year," to people escorting him while being taken inside the facility by two DEA officials has gone viral.

Rapid Response 47, the official White House rapid response account, posted a video on X of Maduro's 'perp walk' inside the DEA office in lower Manhattan.

Local visuals also showed him being transported by a heavily armed motorcade which dropped him at the DEA office, after a chopper landed him in Manhattan.

Earlier, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello demanded “immediate proof of life” from the Donald Trump administration regarding Maduro and the south American country's first lady Cilia Flores.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, first landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York State, after which they were transported by helicopter to the DEA office in Manhattan and subsequently to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Upon arrival in New York, Maduro was expected to be transferred to federal court in Manhattan.

Maduro, wife captured

President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were ‘captured’ in Caracas and were flown out of the country after a joint night-time operation involving US intelligence agencies and the law enforcement. They have been indicted in the United States on drugs and weapons charges.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the indictment of President Maduro and his wife in the Southern District of New York. Bondi said he will face charges including narcoterrorism, cocaine trafficking, and weapons offences linked related to his leadership of the so-called “Cartel of the Suns".

She added, "Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States', as per reports.

Adding further, Bondi said, “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts".

Trump Announces US Control Over Venezuela

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was putting Venezuela under temporary American control after the United States captured President Nicolas Maduro in an audacious raid.

"We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. 

"We can't take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn't have the interests of Venezuelans in mind," as per news agency Reuters.

Trump said as part of the takeover, major U.S. oil companies would move into Venezuela, which has the world's largest oil reserves, and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure, a process experts said could take years.

Meanwhile, Maduro, who was indicted on various U.S. charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, is expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday, according to a Justice Department official. His wife also faces charges, including cocaine importation conspiracy.

Also Read: 'We're Going To Run The Country': Trump Announces US Control Over Venezuela After Maduro Capture