The most senior member of the United States military has offered a grippingly detailed account of how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured.

General John Daniel 'Raizin' Cane, who is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 150 US military aircraft stationed across the western hemisphere had waited for weeks for the perfect moment to strike, before it finally arrived on Friday. 

Addressing journalists at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, Cane said preparations to capture Maduro and his wife Cilia began in August 2025 when CIA spies began monitoring the Maduros' movements.

Cane said: 'We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional...

'After months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.

'In early December our force was set pending a series of aligned events. Key was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise and minimize the harm to the indicted person so, as the president says, they could be brought to justice.'

The optimum moment finally arrived late Friday night, Cane explained, with Trump ordering the mission at 10:46pm ET.

'He said to us "Good luck and God Speed",' Cane recalled. 'Those words were transmitted to the entire joint force.'

General John Daniel 'Raizin' Cane detailed the enormous operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to a press conference Saturday, as President Donald Trump looked on 

Military aircraft parked at Jose Aponte de la Torre Airport in Ceiba, Puerto Rico on Saturday. More than 150 planes including fighters, bombers and drones were deployed to guarantee the success of the Maduro mission 

Nicolas Maduro and wife Cilia are seen in January 2024. The pair will now be brought to New York City to face federal charges  

Cane then detailed how the 150 aircraft - comprising bombers, fighters, surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance planes, as well as helicopters and drones, took to the skies from 20 different bases across the West. 

He said the helicopters carrying the US Army Delta Force unit tasked with personally 'extracting' Maduro and his wife flew just 100 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. This was to ensure that their arrival into the coastal city of Caracas would be a surprise. 

Cane said: 'As they approached Venezuelan shores the United States began layering different effects provided by space comms, cyber comms and other members of the inter agency to create a pathway

'Overhead those forces were protected by aircraft from the US Marines the US Navy the US Air Force and the Air National Guard