US President Donald Trump announced that the US military has killed the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, in an airstrike.
"At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero," Trump wrote on social media.
Guerrero was the longtime leader of Tren de Aragua, one of the most notorious criminal groups in Latin America, which the Trump administration has targeted as a foreign terrorist organization.
Trump accused the group of engaging in "irregular warfare" against the US and posted footage of the airstrike showing a green building and shed being destroyed.
He said the military action was "coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well." Venezuelan authorities confirmed their involvement in what they described as a "joint operation."
In January, US forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his compound in a dramatic overnight raid to face criminal charges in New York. The US accused him of collaborating with the gang, and the indictment named Guerrero Flores as a co-conspirator.
Since then, the US has sought to tighten ties with Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodríguez, lifting sanctions on her and pushing to collaborate on the extraction of Venezuela's oil reserves.
Under Guerrero's leadership, Tren de Aragua expanded into Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, diversifying from extorting migrants into sex-trafficking, contract killing, and kidnapping.
Originally a prison gang, Guerrero turned it into a "transnational criminal organization," according to the US State Department, which had offered millions for information leading to his arrest.
Guerrero spent years in and out of prison. In 2012, he escaped by bribing a guard and was rearrested in 2013. Upon his return, he transformed the Tocorón Prison into a leisure complex with a zoo, restaurants, nightclub, betting shop, and swimming pool.
In September 2023, Maduro sent 11,000 soldiers to storm the jail and regain control. Guerrero escaped again.
Despite imprisonment, he expanded the gang's influence, seizing control of gold mines, drug corridors, and clandestine border crossings between Venezuela and Colombia.
Tren de Aragua spread out of Venezuela when the country entered a humanitarian and economic emergency in 2014, and now has nodes in eight other countries, including the US.
The group operates by forming alliances with local criminal organizations. In Ecuador, it works with groups linked to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel; in Colombia, some allege it has worked with the left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN).
Under the Trump administration, US forces have launched dozens of strikes on boats allegedly part of a large-scale drug smuggling operation, including those linked to Tren de Aragua. More than 200 people have been killed since September, according to US media.
However, the military has not provided evidence that the attacked boats were carrying drugs, sparking criticism and questions about legality. Some legal experts argue the strikes could violate international law by targeting civilians without due process.
The Trump administration has said the killings are lawful. In a statement to Congress, the White House said Trump had "determined" that the US was in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels and that crews of drug-running boats were "combatants."
Source: www.bbc.com