Trump shares pic of Maduro blindfolded in custody as Don vows to run Venezuela after ‘assault not seen since WW2’

A BLINDFOLDED Nicolas Maduro has been pictured on board a US warship after he was captured by special forces in Venezuela.

Donald Trump shared the image just minutes before he announced the US will now run Caracas following the extraction of Maduro and his wife in a daring home raid during a round of airstrikes.

Maduro, 63, can be seen stood up on the USS Iwo Jima – a huge aircraft carrier stationed in the Caribbean – as he was shipped off to New York.

The captured leader was seen wearing ear defenders and a thick black blindfold with a bottle of water in his hands.  He was bizarrely in a grey Nike tracksuit.

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were reportedly captured by Delta Force, the US military’s elite special mission unit, in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The pair were “dragged from their bedroom” as they were sleeping while Black Hawk helicopters and Chinooks launched military airstrikes on Caracas.

Both have been hit with narco-terrorism and weapons-related charges.  Trump detailed how his military pulled off the raid as he spoke from his home in Mar-a-Lago.

He said: “Late last night and early today at my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela, overwhelming American military power.

“Air, land and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War Two.

“This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.”

He said the special forces managed to plunge Caracas into darkness by shutting off the capital’s power before launching the “dark and deadly” assault.

Despite capturing Maduro, Trump has warned the US is “ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so”.

Trump said Washington will now help to run Venezuela going forward.  He announced: “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.

“So, we don’t want to be involved with, having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.

“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to.”  Trump said earlier in the day he gave Maduro the option to surrender peacefully before he was ultimately dragged away.

Maduro and his wife were indicted on several charges in New York, US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed.

She said the Venezuelan president faces charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices as well as conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.

Bondi said: “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”  The pair were flown out of the country and taken to USS Iwo Jima and are now on their way to New York.

Maduro could appear in court as early as Monday.  Trump has spent the past few months waging a “war on drugs” with Venezuela.

He has accused Maduro of running a “cartel” and flooding the US with narcotics – mainly cocaine and fentanyl – even placing a $50million bounty on his counterpart’s head.

Maduro has been “emptying his prisons and insane asylums” to allow hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants to enter the US, Trump said today.

“They were drug dealers. They were drug kingpins. They sent everybody bad into the United States, but no longer,” Trump said.  No one died in the operation but a few US forces were injured, Trump said.