President Donald Trump said on Friday (June 12, 2026) that a “swift and lethal kinetic” U.S. strike had killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, whom he called “the infamous leader” of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Tren de Aragua has been labelled by the United States as a terrorist organisation. Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists in crimes that stretched more than a decade, authorities announced in December.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strike occurred earlier in the week on a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at the time that the gang is responsible for countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking in North America, South America and Europe. Mr. Trump nominated Mr. Clayton on Thursday (June 11, 2026) to be the director of national intelligence.

The U.S. State Department had offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores’ arrest.

In a post on his social media site, Mr. Trump wrote, “Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else and, under my leadership, we will find these vicious murderers and drug lords anytime, anyplace, and send them to the depths of hell where they belong.” Mr. Trump’s post referred to Guerrero Flores by his alias, “Niño Guerrero.”

Mr. Hegseth said, “The operation underscores the shared U.S. and Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe haven in our hemisphere.”

Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the operation.

Mr. Trump has taken a series of extraordinary actions against the gang, including a series of strikes on small boats his administration has accused of smuggling drugs to America. At least 207 people have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

Mr. Trump and administration officials have consistently blamed Tren de Aragua for being at the root of the violence and illicit drug dealing that plague some U.S. cities. The President spent months repeating the claim — contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment — that Tren de Aragua had operated under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s control. The U.S. whisked Mr. Maduro out of Venezuela to face U.S. drug charges in January.

Tren de Aragua originated more than a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in Venezuela’s central state of Aragua. The gang has expanded in recent years as millions of Venezuelans migrated to other Latin American countries or the U.S. in search of better living conditions.

Guerrero Flores returned to the prison in Aragua for murder and other convictions in 2013, when Venezuela’s crisis began as corruption, mismanagement and a drop in crude prices wrecked the oil-dependent economy. Guerrero Flores and a few other inmates saw a profitable opportunity as the government neglected prisons.

They assumed control and administration of the prison, establishing a system that controlled the entire inmate population through force and extortion. Over time, they transformed the facility into a sort of city that included a zoo, baseball field, casino and restaurants. Guerrero Flores had his own lavish suite.

The size of the gang is unclear. Countries with large populations of Venezuelan migrants, including Peru and Colombia, have accused the group of being behind a spree of violence in the region. Still, unlike other criminal organizations from Colombia, Central America and Brazil, Tren de Aragua has no large-scale involvement in smuggling cocaine across international borders, according to InSight Crime, a think tank that tracks crime across Latin America.

In Venezuela, gang leaders have long been known to participate in various illegal activities, including gold mining.

Mr. Trump campaigned for a second term, promising to crack down on immigration and crime. While polls show his favorability ratings have sagged on his handling of the economy, immigration remains Mr. Trump’s strongest issue, according to the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The U.S. military said it launched another strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing three people on Sunday (April 19, 2026).

The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has persisted since early September and killed at least 181 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

U.S. forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday (October 28, 2025), bringing the death toll from Washington’s controversial anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57.

The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers — in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific.

In three strikes carried out Monday (October 27, 2025) in international waters, 14 “narco-terrorists” were killed and one survived, Mr. Hegseth said in a post on X — making it the deadliest day of the U.S. campaign so far.

“The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” he said.

“We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Mr. Hegseth said of drug traffickers.

But Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the United States.

The Pentagon chief’s post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, while the others hit vessels that were speeding across open water.

Mr. Hegseth said that U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) immediately started searching for the sole survivor of the strikes, and that Mexican authorities “accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue.”

Galapagos base?

He did not specify what happened to the survivor or if the person was found, and SOUTHCOM referred a question on the survivor to Mexico.

Mexico’s Navy said it was searching some 400 nautical miles (740 km) southwest of the port of Acapulco.

The announced drug interdiction operation has seen a major U.S. military buildup around Latin America.

The U.S. has deployed seven U.S. Navy warships as well as F-35 stealth warplanes, and ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the region, bringing a massive increase in firepower.

The unusually large U.S. military presence in the Caribbean is coming face to face with Hurricane Melissa, requiring some assets to be moved to safety.

Washington has also carried out multiple shows of force with B-52 and B-1B bombers flying near Venezuela’s coast, the most recent of which took place on Monday (October 27, 2025).

Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes and the military buildup, with Venezuela saying the United States is plotting to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Washington of “fabricating a war.”

Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa, a staunch U.S. ally, meanwhile said Tuesday (October 28, 2025) that his country could host a foreign military base in the famed Galapagos Islands that could be used to combat drug and fuel trafficking, as well as illegal fishing.

Mr. Noboa did not specify which country could establish the base in Ecuador, a major hub for cocaine trafficking, but has talked of “various countries,” including the United States.