The Pentagon said the operation to hunt down the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang was carried out in cooperation with the Venezuelan authorities.
The United States has said it killed a notorious gang leader in a strike at his compound in Venezuela.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation targeting Tren de Aragua leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Nino Guerrero, was carried out earlier this week in full coordination with Venezuelan authorities.
Hegseth said the operation “reaffirms the joint commitment of the United States and Venezuela to advance the fight against drug terrorists and deny them any safe place in our world.”
“Guerrero was a wanted fugitive charged by the United States Department of Justice with ordering, directing, and facilitating acts of terrorism and violence in the United States,” US Southern Command chief General Francis Donovan said.
US President Donald Trump hailed the operation as part of his efforts to combat violent crime in the US.
“This move was closely coordinated with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we work very well,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Guerrero was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2018 for murder, drug trafficking, identity theft, and possession of military weapons, but escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 2023.
Earlier this year, the United States conducted a commando raid in Caracas, and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were indicted by a Manhattan court on drug and firearms charges. Both denied the charges, and the Venezuelan government condemned the operation as an act of aggression.
Since September 2025, US attacks on alleged war boats in the Caribbean have killed more than 200 people. Venezuelan and Colombian officials have called the operations illegal, saying some of the victims were innocent fishermen.
You can share this story on social networks:
Follow RT on
