Tren de Aragua Drug Lord Killed in Venezuela!
Washington/Caracas, June 12 (EFE).-
US forces have killed Venezuelan Tren de Aragua leader Héctor Guerrero Flores, known as ‘Niño Guerrero,’ in an air strike, President Donald Trump announced Friday.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He said the operation was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.”
The Venezuelan government confirmed it carried out the operation with the US in southeastern Bolívar state in which “crime structures” were dismantled.
“During the operation, clashes occurred with members of these criminal structures, resulting in the neutralization of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias ‘Niño Guerrero,’ leader of a criminal organization,” the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication and Information stated in a press release published in X.
It added that the operation had specialized technological support and was carried out through cooperation mechanisms and the exchange of intelligence information between the authorities of both countries.
“Tren de Aragua terrorists 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,” Trump said.
Guerrero was sanctioned in 2025 by the Treasury Department, along with five other members of the transnational organized crime syndicate Tren de Aragua, including his lieutenant Yohan José Romero, known as Johan Petrica.
The US government accuses Guerrero of transforming a prison gang focused on extortion and bribery into a continent-wide criminal organization.
Wanted as one of South America’s most wanted criminals, the 42-yearold had been on the run since 2023, when he escaped as Venezuelan authorities conducted an operation at Tocorón prison, considered the organization’s base of operations.
Trump declared the Tren de Aragua gang a foreign terrorist organization in January 2025, and on Friday boasted of fulfilling his promise to “deport thousands of evil criminals, and wage war against the Cartels, who have long been waging war against our Citizens, while weak leaders left America helpless and defensive.” EFE
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