Nicolas Maduro has been pictured being led into the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) by its agents fewer than 24 hours after American forced captured him in Venezuela.
The dictator was seen being “perp walked” down a hallway by US agents with his hands clasped together around a bottle of water.
He angrily wished bystanders a “Happy New Year” and bid them goodnight in his first remarks since his capture in capital Caracas.
Earlier, Mr Maduro was charged with a slew of drugs and weapons offences after he was taken.
Nicolas Maduro has been pictured being led into the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) by its agents
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WHITE HOUSE
Donald Trump said US forces stormed a “fortress” to capture him in a “TV show-like” operation.
Mr Trump was outlining details of the daring raid in Caracas as he revealed: “We were going to do this four days ago but the weather was not perfect.”
“The weather has to be perfect… all of a sudden it opened up and we said go.”
He explained that Mr Maduro was apprehended “in a house that was more like a fortress than a house” with “solid steel all around”.
The Venezuelan premier was then taken via helicopter with his wife Cilia Flores to the USS Iwo Jima, before being flown to New York City.
Now, Mr Maduro is now being held in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in the Big Apple – which has housed so-called “celebrity prisoners” such as Mexican drug lord El Chapo, Luigi Mangione, Ghislaine Maxwell and P Diddy.
Without its President, Venezuela will be placed under temporary American control, Mr Trump said on Saturday.
“We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said. “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind.”
As part of the takeover, American oil companies would move into the country – which boasts the world’s largest oil reserves – and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure.
