Gang leader Flores controlled a huge criminal organization in Venezuela for years.
Published June 13, 2026
President Donald Trump says the U.S. military has killed the “notorious leader” of the Venezuelan gang Torren de Aragua. Torren de Aragua has branded the regime a global “terrorist” organization and drug-smuggling cartel.
“At my direction, U.S. Southern Command successfully executed Niño Guerrero in a swift and deadly kinetic attack,” President Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website late Friday, referring to gang leader Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores.
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President Trump added that the operation was conducted in cooperation with Venezuela.
Venezuela’s government confirmed in a statement that it had taken part in the operation in the southeastern state of Bolívar, and said Flores was killed in a “conflict with members of a criminal organization.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X that the attack targeted the Torren de Aragua base in Venezuela earlier in the week.
“This operation underscores the shared determination of the United States and Venezuela to combat narco-terrorists and deny them safe haven in our hemisphere,” he posted.
Torren de Aragua originates from a notorious prison in Venezuela’s Aragua state, from which it controlled a vast drug trafficking and criminal network.
The group has approximately 7,000 members in South America and the United States. It was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in February 2025, early in the Trump administration.
Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago also recognize the organization as a terrorist group.
Gang leader Flores, 42, escaped from Venezuela’s Tocolon prison with other gang leaders in 2023 just before a police raid.
He was arraigned in absentia in a New York court in December on charges of racketeering conspiracy and aiding terrorists and other crimes.
The US government said a series of attacks on small vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean were targeted by gangs. At least 207 people died. Families of some of the dead said they were fishermen.
The attack is widely considered to be illegal under both U.S. and international law, and has been described by legal scholars and rights groups as an extrajudicial killing.
The Trump administration has also cited gang ties to justify deporting some immigrants to high-security prisons in El Salvador.
President Trump has said, without evidence, that the group was operating under the protection of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
In January, U.S. forces raided their home in Caracas and abducted President Maduro and First Lady Syria Flores. Maduro is currently facing federal drug charges.
