The U.S. military eliminated the leader of the Tren de Aragua narco-terrorist gang, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, in a recent strike inside Venezuela, President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday. The 42-year-old drug lord, widely known as “Niño Guerrero,” was the leader of a transnational criminal syndicate spanning South America, the United States, and Europe.
“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” President Trump posted on Truth Social.
President Trump assured that narco-terrorists like Guerrero “no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else and, under my leadership, we will find these vicious murderers and drugs lords anytime, anyplace, and send them to the depths of hell where they belong.”
Guerrero-led Tren de Aragua, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, is one of the most feared gangs in Latin America. The BBC observed that under “Guerrero’s leadership, Tren de Aragua expanded into Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile and diversified from extorting migrants into sex-trafficking, contract killing and kidnapping.”
Guerrero’s reach extended far beyond the criminal underworld. He used his drug trafficking profits to gain political influence and secure protection. The drug lord had ties to Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolás Maduro and was named as a co-conspirator in the indictment. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are sitting in a New York City jail on drug trafficking charges following their capture by the U.S. military in early January.
According to Reuters, “Tren de Aragua is known for being involved in human trafficking and controls routes taken by Venezuelans and other South American migrants heading south to relatively prosperous Chile and other destinations in South America or Europe.”
The Venezuelan government cooperated with the U.S. in the operation that led to the killing of the wanted narco-terrorist. “Venezuelan authorities confirmed their involvement in what they described as a “joint operation,” the BBC confirmed.
NBC News reported:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that U.S. forces struck a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela to carry out the attack.Tren de Aragua quickly became a target of Trump’s immigration enforcement after he returned to office in 2025, putting the gang at the center of his deportation agenda. The State Department designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025.Guerrero Flores in December was charged by the U.S. with racketeering conspiracy and lending support to terrorists, along with other crimes, with the State Department offering $5 million in rewards for information that would help arrest or convict him.Federal prosecutors in December called him “the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization.”In July, he was sanctioned by the U.S. government, alongside five other alleged Tren de Aragua leaders and affiliates, over claims that they had engaged in numerous crimes, including illicit drug trade, human smuggling and trafficking and money laundering.
The strike is part of a wider U.S. campaign to combat foreign crime and drug gangs. On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order, designating Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua, El Salvador’s MS-13, and six Mexican gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.
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