Dec. 29 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Monday confirmed that the United States struck a "dock area" that officials believe is used to transfer drugs to boats for international distribution.
The U.S. military has struck dozens of ships in the Caribbean near Venezuela, as well as in the Pacific, that are allegedly shipping drugs from South America to the United States and other countries, but the dock would be the first time that an onshore target has been struck.
Trump said Friday in a radio interview that a "big facility" had been "knocked out" in Venezuela that was not widely publicized until Monday when reporters at Mar-a-Lago asked him about it, ABC News and The New York Times reported.
According to CNN, the dock was targeted by the CIA in a drone strike based on intelligence from the U.S. Special Forces that it was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a shipping facility for drugs.
A spokesperson for U.S. Special Operations Command told CNN that "Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support," the network noted, adding that the Special Operations Forces continue to be involved in Venezuela.
