President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States has carried out a deadly strike on the leader of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a transnational gang founded in Venezuela.
“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“The attack was coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well,” Trump added, apparently referring to the interim leadership of Delcy Rodriguez, who has been in place since the US removed Nicolas Maduro from power in January.
“As a result, Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else,” he wrote, without specifying where the strike took place.
The social media post was accompanied by a 10-second video, showing an overhead view of a building surrounded by greenery before an explosion is seen, sending up a cloud of smoke. No people are clearly visible in the footage.
The United States has designated Tren de Aragua, which is also active in Colombia, Peru and Chile, as a terrorist organisation.
In December, federal prosecutors in New York filed racketeering, drug and firearms charges against Guerrero, whose real name is Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores.
“Guerrero Flores has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organisation," US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement when the indictment was announced.
TdA, under Guerrero Flores’s leadership, has “committed countless acts of violence, extortion, and drug trafficking all over North America, South America, and Europe", he added.
The US State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
