Top Tren de Aragua leader killed in US military strike, Trump announces
By Michael Williams, CNN
(CNN) — One of the top leaders of Tren de Aragua, a cartel and US-designated terrorist organization, has been killed in a US military strike, President Donald Trump said Friday.
Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, was killed in “a swift and lethal kinetic strike,” Trump announced Friday evening on Truth Social. The president said the strike was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.”
His post included a video showing a green roofed building disappearing under a cloud of billowing smoke caused by a massive explosion.
The strike was conducted earlier this week in collaboration with Venezuelan security forces, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in on X.
US Southern Command Commander Gen. Francis Donovan said in a statement on X, “We extend our gratitude to the Venezuelan security forces for their support to the successful joint operation against a Tren de Aragua compound that resulted in the death of the narco-terrorist organization’s leader.”
In December, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Guerrero with ordering, directing and facilitating acts of terrorism within the United States.
That announcement was part of a massive pressure campaign against Venezuela, its leaders and the drug cartels that operate within the country.
US Attorney Jay Clayton described him at the time as the “mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization,” while the US government offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. (Clayton has since been nominated by Trump to serve as the Director of National Intelligence).
Guerrero’s brother had been arrested in March 2024 in Spain for his alleged participation in terrorism, human trafficking, arms trafficking, extortion, money laundering and criminal association. His arrest led to Spain identifying and dismantling its first suspected cell of Tren de Aragua in the country.
Spreading reach
The criminal gang originated in a Venezuela prison and has slowly spread both north and south in recent years. It now operates in the US.
The full scale of its operations is unknown. While the gang has principally focused on human trafficking and other crimes targeting migrants, it has also been linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug smuggling, according to the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
For years, Tren de Aragua not only terrorized Venezuela but also countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru. The group adopted its name between 2013 and 2015 but its operations predate that, according to a report by Transparency Venezuela.
One challenge for law enforcement officials is knowing how many members of Tren de Aragua are already in the US. Some Venezuelan immigrants in Florida and other states say they are beginning to see the same type of criminal activity they fled in Venezuela; but Insight Crime, a think tank dedicated to organized crime said in October 2025 that Tren de Aragua’s “reputation appears to have grown more quickly than its actual presence in the United States.”
Near the beginning of his second term, Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization.
Last March, his administration sparked controversy with its move to deport more than 200 people, some of whom it alleged were members of Tren de Aragua, to an infamous maximum-security prison in El Salvador – even though officials provided scant evidence of gang involvement and many of the deportees denied being linked to the group.
Starting around last September, the Department of Defense began targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats operating around the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
More than 200 people have been killed in strikes on those boats. The Trump administration has not provided public evidence of the presence of narcotics on the boats struck, nor their affiliation with drug cartels.
The CIA also carried out a drone strike last December on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, which it believed was being used by the Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for shipping, according to sources familiar with the matter.
In January, the president ordered a military raid against Venezuela that resulted in the capture of its then-president, Nicolás Maduro. Maduro was transferred to US custody. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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CNN’s Ray Sanchez and Rafael Romo contributed reporting
