US Kills Tren de Aragua Leader Guerrero in Strike on Compound
(Bloomberg) -- The US killed the leader of the Tren De Aragua drug cartel, Niño Guerrero, in a strike that was carried out with the
(Bloomberg) -- The US killed the leader of the Tren De Aragua drug cartel, Niño Guerrero, in a strike that was carried out with the assistance of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said. “The United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero,” the president said on Truth Social Friday night. The post was accompanied by an video, shot from overhead, of a building with a green roof being consumed in a massive explosion. “This action was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well,” Trump added. “As a result, Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else.” Trump designated the group as a terrorist organization as one of his earliest acts after returning to office last year.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X that Guerrero, 43, had been “confirmed killed” in a strike on a gang compound in Venezuela. He didn’t say specify the location of the compound. After starting in a prison in Venezuela more than a decade ago, Tren de Aragua spread across Latin America and entered the US in part through its participation in human trafficking and undocumented migration. It is also involved in extortion, weapons trafficking, prostitution, illegal mining, robbery and kidnapping. Some its senior leaders are thought to be outside Venezuela. The killing marks the most significant US operation yet against the gang and underscores growing security cooperation between Washington and Caracas following the US-led removal of President Nicolás Maduro in January. Earlier: Venezuela Moves to Open Power Sector to Private Investment In a federal indictment last December, prosecutors in New York charged Guerrero, whose real name is Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, with racketeering, terrorism, drug smuggling and other counts.
A $5 million reward had been offered for information leading to his arrest, according to a statement by the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan. “Guerrero Flores operated Tren de Aragua like a multinational crime syndicate—laundering money through cryptocurrency, trafficking drugs by the ton, selling weapons of war, and orchestrating acts of terror across borders,” Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Louis A. D’Ambrosio said in the statement. “He ran this empire from prison, shielded by corruption, and in collaboration with a narco-state cartel intent on flooding the United States with cocaine.” Born in the central city of Maracay, Guerrero accumulated criminal charges beginning in the early 2000s and escaped from prison multiple times. He later emerged as the leader of Tren de Aragua, transforming the group from a prison gang based in Tocorón prison into a transnational criminal organization with operations across Latin America and beyond.
The BriefWire