US forces killed the chief of Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua in an airstrike, President Trump introduced Friday.
“At my path, the US Southern Command delivered a swift and deadly kinetic strike to efficiently execute Niño Guerrero, the notorious chief of Tren De Aragua, one of the bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” Trump wrote on Fact Social.
Trump’s put up included a dramatic video that confirmed a projectile hitting a constructing, which seemed to be in a distant space, and inflicting an enormous, fiery explosion.
The president known as the assault “retribution” for the violent crimes perpetrated by Tren de Argua, which he described as a “overseas military” that was allowed to “rape, maim, and homicide American Residents with complete impunity” beneath former President Joe Biden.
“Early in my Administration, I delivered on my promise to designate Tren de Aragua as a International Terrorist Group, deport 1000’s of evil criminals, and wage warfare in opposition to the Cartels, who’ve lengthy been waging warfare in opposition to our Residents, whereas weak leaders left America helpless and defensive,” Trump continued.
The president mentioned the airstrike was “coordinated carefully with our associates in Venezuela, with whom we’re working very properly.”
“Because of this, Tren de Aragua terrorists now not have protected haven in Venezuela or anyplace else and, beneath my management, we’ll discover these vicious murderers and medicines lords anytime, anyplace, and ship them to the depths of hell the place they belong,” Trump concluded.
The Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua a overseas terrorist group final February.
In December, an indictment in opposition to Guerrero, 42, was unsealed within the Southern District of New York, accusing him collaborating in a racketeering conspiracy; conspiracy to supply materials help to terrorists; cocaine importation conspiracy; and utilizing and carrying firearms, machine weapons and damaging gadgets in furtherance of drug trafficking.
“As alleged, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan jail gang right into a transnational terrorist group that dedicated numerous acts of violence, extortion, and drug trafficking throughout North America, South America, and Europe,” US Lawyer Jay Clayton mentioned in an announcement on the time.
The State Division had provided as much as $5 million for data resulting in Guerrero’s seize and conviction.
Battle Secretary Pete Hegseth famous on X that strike befell “earlier this week” in “full collaboration with Venezuelan safety forces.”
Hegseth mentioned the constructing struck was a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.
Since final September, the Trump administration has aggressively focused alleged Tren de Aragua gang members – putting dozens of alleged drug smuggling boats in Caribbean Sea and Japanese Pacific Ocean, killing greater than 200 suspected narcoterrorists.
