Trump says US military strike killed leader of Tren de Aragua gang with
help from Venezuela
[June 13, 2026]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that a “swift and
lethal kinetic” U.S. strike has killed Héctor 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.
Defense 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. Trump nominated Clayton on Thursday
to be 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, 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.”
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 U.S. and Venezuelan
commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe
haven in our hemisphere.”
Venezuela's government released a statement confirmed its participation
in the operation and revealed it took place in the southeastern state of
Bolivar.
“During the operation, clashes occurred with members of criminal groups,
resulting in the death of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias
‘Niño Guerrero,’ the leader of one of these criminal organizations,”
according to the statement.
The mineral-rich state, which borders Brazil and Guyana, is home to
large illegal mining operations long controlled by gangs and other
actors who mine with the consent — and to the benefit — of officials and
the military.
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.
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 Maduro out of Venezuela to face U.S.
drug charges in January.
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Soldiers raid the Tocorón Penitentiary Center, where the Tren de
Aragua gang originated, in Tocorón, Venezuela, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP
Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
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 and drug
trafficking.
The legal mining of gold and other minerals is a component of the
Trump administration's phased plan to turn the crisis-wrecked
country around. In March, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum
told reporters during a visit to Venezuela that the government of
acting President Delcy Rodríguez was giving security assurances to
mining companies interested in investing in the South American
country.
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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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City
contributed.
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