U.S. President Donald Trump announced that American forces killed a "notorious leader" of the Tren de Aragua gang, a Venezuelan criminal organization that Washington has designated as a "terrorist" group and global drug cartel.
"Under my direction, the U.S. Southern Command carried out a swift and lethal strike to eliminate Niño Guerrero," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday evening, referring to the gang leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores. He added that the operation was conducted in coordination with Venezuela.
In a statement, the Venezuelan government confirmed its involvement in the operation in the southeastern state of Bolivar, saying that Flores was killed in "clashes with members of criminal groups."
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X, said the strike took place earlier this week, targeting a Tren de Aragua location in Venezuela. "This operation underscores the shared commitment of the United States and Venezuela in the fight against drug trafficking and in denying them any safe haven in our hemisphere," he wrote.
Tren de Aragua originated from a notorious prison in Aragua state, Venezuela, from which it controlled a vast drug trafficking and crime network. The group has an estimated 7,000 members spread across South America and the United States.
The gang was blacklisted by the U.S. as a terrorist organization in February 2025, early in Trump's second term. Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago have also designated the group as terrorist.
Leader Flores, 42, escaped from Venezuela's Tocoron prison alongside other gang leaders just before a police raid in 2023. He was indicted in absentia in a New York court in December on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, material support for terrorism, and other offenses.
Washington has also claimed a series of strikes on small vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean were targeting this gang, killing at least 207 people. Some families of the deceased say the victims were fishermen. The strikes have been widely condemned as illegal under both U.S. and international law and described by legal scholars and human rights groups as extrajudicial executions.
The Trump administration has also cited ties to the gang to justify deportations of migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Trump has said there is no evidence the group operates under the patronage of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In January, U.S. soldiers abducted Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores during a raid on their private residence in Caracas. Maduro now faces federal drug charges.
