DONALD Trump has said a “swift and lethal” US strike killed the “infamous” leader of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, was credited with transforming the street gang into a transnational cartel.
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US President Donald Trump said a ‘swift and lethal’ strike wiped out the infamous gang leader Credit: AFP
Footage posted by Trump shows a huge blast rip through a small building Credit: AFP
The US president wrote in a post on Truth Social: “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.”
The post included dramatic drone footage of a strike blasting a small green building.
Video shows a fire ball erupt before the building disappears into a cloud of billowing smoke.
Trump said the action was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well”.
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It was conducted earlier this week in collaboration with Venezuelan security forces, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth later added on X.
Venezuela’s government said the joint operation involved intelligence sharing and specialised technical support.
During the operation “clashes occurred” with members of the criminal gangs resulting in the death of Guerrero, the country’s communications ministry said in a statement.
US Southern Command Commander Gen. Francis Donovan said the joint operation targeted “a Tren de Aragua compound,” in a post on X.
Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, was the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang Credit: Wikipedia
US South Com said the operation targeted a Tren de Aragua compound Credit: Reuters
Tren de Aragua was designated a terrorist organisation by Trump’s administration which claims it operated under the control of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro before he was seized by US forces.
The gang was founded within Tocorón prison in Venezuela’s Aragua state.
It controlled the prison, building a swimming pool and restaurants inside for inmates to live a life of luxury.
In 2023 the Venezuelan government regained control of the facility but Guerrero was not found and had been on the run since.
He is credited with growing the gang into a major network spreading across the US, Latin American and even across the Atlantic into Spain.
The US State Department offered a whopping $5million reward for information leading to his capture in late 2024.
Soon after, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Guerrero with ordering, directing and facilitating acts of terrorism.
Following the strike, Trump said “Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else”.
He vowed to weed out other “vicious murderers” and “drug lords” and “send them to the depths of hell where they belong”.
Trump’s administration has targeted the gang and its leader with sanctions over alleged criminal activities.
Last March the US president deported more than 200 people, some allegedly members of Tren de Aragua, to an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
