US says it killed Tren de Aragua leader Nif1o Guerrero in air strike

The United States says it has killed the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in an airstrike, in what President Donald Trump described as a "swift and lethal kinetic strike". Trump said the operation was carried out by the United States Southern Command and that it successfully killed Hector Guerrero Flores, known as Nif1o Guerrero. He said the action was coordinated closely with "friends in Venezuela", but no Venezuelan official has confirmed the strike.

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Trump did not say when the strike took place. In his post, he said the gang no longer had safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else, and repeated his administration's claim that Tren de Aragua is a foreign terrorist organisation. He also said the US had been "waging war against the cartels" and had already taken a series of extraordinary actions against the group, including strikes on small boats that his administration has accused of smuggling drugs to the US.

The strike is significant because it appears to mark a direct US military action against a named criminal leader linked to a transnational gang. Tren de Aragua has been described by US authorities as one of the most notorious criminal groups in Latin America, and the Trump administration has placed it in the same category as the Islamic State. The president has also accused the group of engaging in "irregular warfare" against the US, a framing that raises the stakes of the confrontation beyond ordinary law-enforcement action.

Guerrero, whose full name is Hector Guerrero Flores, has long been a target of US authorities. The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest, and he was previously charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including support for terrorists. US officials have said the gang is responsible for violence, extortion and drug trafficking across North America, South America and Europe.

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The group itself began as a prison gang before Guerrero turned it into what the US state department has called a transnational criminal organisation. That history matters because it helps explain why the gang has become a focus of both criminal and national-security policy in Washington. The administration's decision to treat it as a terrorist organisation gives it a different legal and political status from a conventional organised-crime group.

The case also sits within a wider and increasingly confrontational US approach to Venezuela. In January 2026, Guerrero was named as a co-defendant in the indictment of Venezuelan President Nicole1s Maduro, according to the supplied material, and US authorities have alleged that Maduro had direct operational ties to Tren de Aragua. Maduro has remained publicly defiant under US pressure, while the latest strike suggests Washington is prepared to use military force against figures it links to the gang.

Footage posted by Trump appeared to show the airstrike hitting a green building with a nearby shed, although the exact location and timing were not specified in the material provided. The absence of an official Venezuelan confirmation leaves key details unresolved, including whether the target was definitively identified on the ground and what intelligence led to the strike. The claim that the operation was coordinated with allies in Venezuela also raises questions about who was involved and how broad that cooperation was.

What remains unclear is the full scale of the operation, the precise date of the strike and whether there were any other casualties. It is also not yet known how Caracas will respond, or whether the strike will lead to further US action against Tren de Aragua or related figures. The next developments to watch are any confirmation from Venezuelan authorities, any response from the US military command, and whether Washington presents additional evidence to support its account.