President Donald Trump announced that a swift and lethal U.S. attack resulted in the death of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, labeled as the notorious leader of the Tren de Aragua gang. The U.S. classifies Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization. Guerrero Flores faced charges in a New York federal court for conspiracy to engage in organized crime and other offenses, including supporting terrorists over more than a decade, authorities declared in December.
Federal prosecutor Jay Clayton stated that the group is responsible for numerous acts of violence, extortion, and drug trafficking in North America, South America, and Europe. On Thursday, Trump nominated Clayton to be the director of national intelligence. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on the social network X that the attack occurred recently at a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.
In Caracas, interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s government confirmed Guerrero Flores’ death during a ‘joint operation between security agencies of Venezuela and the United States’ in the southwest of Bolívar state, where organized crime structures operating in the area were dismantled. The operation included clashes with criminal elements resulting in the neutralization of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias Niño Guerrero, a criminal organization leader, as stated by the Ministry of Communication and Information.
The operation involved specialized technology and was carried out through intelligence information exchange and cooperation between authorities of both countries. The U.S. State Department had offered rewards up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores’ arrest.
On Truth Social, Trump declared, ‘Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe havens in Venezuela or anywhere else, and under my leadership, we will find these ruthless murderers and drug traffickers at any time, in any place, and send them to the depths of hell, where they belong.’ He referred to Guerrero Flores by his alias, Niño Guerrero. The post included a declassified aerial video of a small building with a green roof exploding.
‘The operation emphasizes the shared commitment of the United States and Venezuela to combat narco-terrorists and deny them any haven in our hemisphere,’ Hegseth expressed. Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications did not respond immediately to a comment request on the operation.
Trump has taken extraordinary measures against the group, including several attacks on small vessels accused by his administration of drug trafficking to the United States. At least 207 people have died in attacks on vessels by U.S. armed forces in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea since Trump’s administration began targeting those it calls ‘narco-terrorists’ in September 2025. Trump and his administration frequently blame Tren de Aragua for the root of violence and illicit drug trafficking plaguing some U.S. cities.
Trump spent months repeating the claim, contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence evaluation, that Tren de Aragua operated under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s control. In January, U.S. forces captured Maduro and removed him from Venezuela to face drug charges in the United States.
Tren de Aragua emerged more than a decade ago in a chaotic prison known for its unruliness and seasoned criminals in Venezuela’s central Aragua state. The gang expanded in recent years following the emigration of millions of Venezuelans to other Latin American countries or the United States in search of better living conditions.
In 2013, Guerrero Flores returned to Aragua prison to serve sentences for murder and other crimes at a time when corruption, mismanagement, and a drop in oil prices wrecked Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy. He and other inmates seized the opportunity to run the prison, controlling the inmate population through force and extortion. Over time, they turned the facility into a makeshift city with a zoo, baseball field, casino, and restaurants. Guerrero Flores maintained his luxury suite.
The gang’s true size is unknown. Countries with large Venezuelan migrant populations, including Peru and Colombia, have accused the group of inciting regional violence. Unlike other criminal organizations in Colombia, Central America, and Brazil, the Tren de Aragua lacks large-scale participation in cocaine smuggling across international borders, according to InSight Crime, a think tank monitoring crime throughout Latin America.
In Venezuela, gang leaders have long been known to engage in various illegal activities, including gold mining. Trump’s reelection campaign promised to crack down on immigration and crime. Although polls indicate decreased popularity due to economic management, immigration remains the strongest issue for Trump, according to the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Journalists Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City and Jorge Rueda in Caracas contributed to this report.