US President Donald Trump said Friday that a “swift and lethal kinetic” US strike has killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, whom he called “the infamous leader” of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Tren de Aragua has been labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization. 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.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strike occurred earlier in the week on a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.
US 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. Trump nominated Clayton on Thursday to be director of national intelligence.
The US State Department had offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores’ arrest.
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In a post on his social media site, 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.” Trump’s post referred to Guerrero Flores by his alias, “Niño Guerrero.”
Soldiers raid the Tocorón Penitentiary Center, where the Tren de Aragua gang originated, in Tocorón, Venezuela, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
The post also included unclassified video, shot from above, of a small building with a green roof exploding.
Hegseth said, “The operation underscores the shared US 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.
“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth.” – President DONALD J. TRUMP ???????? pic.twitter.com/3R5IPxhPXX
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 13, 2026
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 US military in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.
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 US cities. The president spent months repeating the claim — contradicted by a declassified US intelligence assessment — that Tren de Aragua had operated under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s control. The US whisked Maduro out of Venezuela to face US drug charges in January.
This screengrab taken from the X account of Rapid Response 47, an official White House account, shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) escorted by DEA agents inside the headquarters of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Manhattan, New York, January 3, 2026. (X account of Rapid Response 47 / AFP)
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 US 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.
Members of the Investigations Police (PDI) place items seized during “Operation Tokyo” for a press conference in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. According to the PDI, the operation dismantled a local cell of the “Tren de Aragua” criminal organization. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
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.
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 Trump’s strongest issue, according to the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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