Spies, drones and blowtorches: How US forces captured Maduro
With a man on the inside and replica houses to practice entry, here's how US Special Forces forced their way into the Venezuelan President's lair.
Armed with blowtorches and with spies tipping off US commanders from inside Venezuela, special forces officers made history on Saturday with an operation that culminated in President Maduro's dramatic capture.
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During the early hours, around 200 special forces officers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment – dubbed Night Stalkers – entered the country aboard Chinook helicopters with the aim of capturing the sitting Venezuelan President.
The officers aboard the helicopters were joined by a raft of aircraft, including F-18, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, a further wave of helicopters in the form of Seahawks, as well as B-1 supersonic bombers.
Unmanned drones were also launched from US warships as part of the operation, which have been stationed off the Venezuelan coast since early December.
All the while, Nicolas Maduro remained at his residence - with 6inch-thick steel doors securing his personal panic room.
It was a meticulously planned operation, with Donald Trump revealing that special forces "actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into" in a bid to rehearse the capture.
Read more: Handcuffed Maduro 'perp walked' to cell in New York as Trump says US will 'run Venezuela'
Describing how the residence had "steel all over the place," Mr Trump revealed his forces "were ready for anything".
Accounts emerging from the US suggest President Maduro and wife Cilia were snatched by US Special Forces just as they attempted to secure the panic room door.
Mr Trump refused to reveal details on the scale of CIA spy involvement on the ground in Venezuela, after it was revealed they had been monitoring Maduro's movements for months.
It also followed suggestions that the spies had 'hijacked' the local power grid or launched a cyber attack in order to further enable his capture.
"Then we turned off all the lights," President Trump declared.
Late on Saturday, Trump revealed: "The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have."
From Maduro's daily movements, to his clothes, diet and childcare routines, every element of the operation was studied in meticulous detail.
He said: "This mission was meticulously planned. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do, an extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere in close co-ordination, all coming together in time and place to create a layered effect all for a single purpose – to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of surprise."
Close to a dozen Special Forces troops entered Maduro's after deploying from helicopters above the building.
Known as 'fast roping', the unit descended from ropes as they faced heavy gunfire from below.
The helicopters took heavy gunfire, returning shots and eventually making it back to their carrier without issue.
Described as a 'brutal' firefight by CIA sources, special forces entered Mr Maduro's compound, Fort Tiuna, where the President was found alongside his wife, as the pair attempted to enter the steel panic room wearing just their pyjamas, according to reports.
"The force descended into Maduro's compound and moved with speed, precision and discipline and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons," General Caine revealed.
Maduro and his wife were then forced into a chopper, which had landed within the compound, before being ferried to New York aboard a US warship.
In the hours following the capture, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said of Maduro: 'He f***ed around and found out.'