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A joint U.S.-Venezuelan military strike has killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the founder and leader of the Tren de Aragua transnational gang, who was widely known as "Nino Guerrero."
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the airstrike Saturday, which targeted a gang compound in Venezuela's southern Bolivar state and was later confirmed by authorities in Caracas.
The killing of Guerrero Flores, indicted in New York on racketeering, terrorism support, and drug conspiracy charges and subject to a $5 million U.S. State Department reward, underscores the new operational relationship between Washington and post-Maduro Venezuela.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: "At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero."
He described Tren de Aragua as "one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth" and said the operation delivered "retribution" for the gang's victims and their families.
"This action was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well," Trump wrote, adding that "Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else."
His post included a 10-second video showing an overhead view of a building before a strike ignites it.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike on X, saying it took place earlier in the week on a Tren de Aragua compound and "underscores the shared U.S. and Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe haven in our hemisphere."
Venezuela's Ministry of Communications confirmed that Guerrero Flores, identified by his full legal name, "was neutralized" during "clashes with members of these criminal structures" in a combined operation between U.S. forces and Venezuelan security services.
Guerrero Flores, 43, ran Tren de Aragua for more than a decade, transforming it from a Venezuelan prison outfit into a transnational criminal enterprise with a presence throughout the Americas, including in the United States.
Federal prosecutors alleged he directed gang operations from Tocoron Prison, collecting fees from members on the outside. BBC News reported he lived "like a king" during part of his imprisonment, occupying an entire prison floor with bodyguards, a swimming pool, a zoo and a nightclub.
He escaped from Tocoron in 2012 and was rearrested a year later. He received a 17-year sentence in 2018, escaped again in 2023 and remained at large until his death.
Federal prosecutors in New York indicted him in December 2025 on charges including racketeering, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and cocaine conspiracy.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at the time that Guerrero Flores had been "the mastermind of Tren de Aragua's evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization."
The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
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