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The US claim the armed forces mission aimed at apprehending Venezuela's president involved many weeks of careful preparation, but the moment Donald Trump issued the command to commence, "Operation Absolute Resolve" concluded after approximately 150 minutes.

The shocking early-morning strike on Saturday signified a never-before-seen event in modern politics and culminated in the detention of Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores.

Seized by troops from a top-tier US army unit while they tried to escape into a heavily secured secure chamber, the pair are currently in custody in a detention centre in New York and face drug trafficking and terrorism accusations.

The Early Morning Assault on the Military Complex

With daybreak that morning, the scale of the armed intervention in the capital, the nation's primary city, became apparent.

Images from the vast military base, a massive military complex in which key officials live, show blasted structures and burned, smouldering vehicles.

The location was this compound that the president and first lady were captured, Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández reported.

Just Moments Before - Trump Gives the Order

The mission commenced amid reports of blasts around 2 AM local time (6:00 Greenwich Mean Time).

The US disabled electricity to the city, Trump has since said, calling it "dark and deadly".

The objective was to disable the nation's air defense systems and clear the way for US military helicopters to get to the target.

Our evaluation was that we had maintained totally the element of surprise", the top general stated.

Targeted sites encompassed the compound, a port and an airport. Pictures depict Fuerte Tiuna engulfed in flames, with huge flames visible for miles.

Venezuelans have described how US military helicopters flew low over Caracas, en route to the military base.

A number of the aircraft were shot at, however managed to continue flying, officials said.

"It was a lot of weapons fire," Trump noted.

A Lightning-Fast Ground Assault

Once on the ground, troops from an elite special operations unit, sprang into action.

They entered the facility at 02:01 local time, and the Maduros surrendered without a struggle, as per reports.

But, more details were provided. The Maduros tried to escape into a secure location, referred to as a military "fortress".

"The safe place is all steel, and he wasn't able to get to the door because our guys were so fast.

It featured a very thick door, a massive door," the President informed the media. "He made it the entrance. He was unable to shut it."

However, even assuming they had succeeded to enter the safe room, troops could have blown it open in about "47 seconds".

From the Capital to Manhattan

Now in US custody, Nicolás Maduro and his wife were moved approximately 3,400 kilometers, to Manhattan.

They were flown from the capital by helicopter, and transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, a naval vessel stationed in the Caribbean. The team was back "over the water" before 4:30 AM.

Aboard the vessel that an iconic image from the entire mission emerged - the president in handcuffs, wearing ear protectors and a type of blindfold that looked like opaque glasses.

From the USS Iwo Jima, his initial stop was at the American naval installation at Guantánamo Bay.

They were then flown on a government plane to a military airfield in New York, and then via helicopter into New York City.

Confronting The Legal System in American Soil

On Saturday, a video emerged depicting the detainee inside the Drug Enforcement Agency's (DEA) headquarters in New York.

The couple are presently detained in a detention centre within the city.

They have been charged with planning narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking, owning machine guns and explosives, and plots to possess such weapons and bombs against the US.

"They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," a senior legal official declared.

Video documents the leader's entry in US and transport to detention.