Palm Beach, Florida - The US has hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuela drug boats, President Donald Trump said Monday, in what could amount to the first land strike of the military campaign against trafficking from Latin America.

His confirmation of the incident comes as he ramps up a pressure campaign against Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Trump of seeking regime change.

"There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"So we hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it's the implementation area, that's where they implement. And that is no longer around."

Donald Trump Trump casually hints at land strike as Venezuela pressure mounts: "We hit them very hard"

The US leader would not say if it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, saying only that it was "along the shore."

Asked if he had spoken to Maduro recently, following an earlier phone call in November, Trump said they had talked "pretty recently" but said that "nothing much comes out of it."

Trump had been asked to elaborate on apparent throwaway comments he made in a radio interview broadcast Friday that seemed to mention a land strike for the first time.

"They have a big plant or a big facility where they send, you know, where the ships come from," Trump told billionaire supporter John Catsimatidis on the WABC radio station in New York.

"Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard."