On September 2nd, 2025, U.S. President Trump announced that the U.S. military had killed at least 11 individuals in an operation on members of the Tren de Aragua cartel who were alleged to have been transporting drugs. The strike was conducted on a small boat in international waters between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, with President Trump sharing footage of the strike on his social media page, Truth Social. This strike was the first known use of military force on cartels following their designation as Foreign Terrorist Organisations in August 2025.

Residents of the Venezuelan coastal town San Juan de Unare began mourning publicly on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, sharing images and tributes to those killed – all believed to be men. One post read “San Juan of Unare in mourning, may those fathers who enter this world out of necessity rest in peace, so that their families can live a little better.”

Eight of those killed were reportedly from San Juan de Unare, while the three others were from nearby towns, including Los Testigos and Güiria, according to online accounts posting about those killed. A social media post recirculated by the account News Room provided the names of some of the victims, noting the source was an unnamed Venezuelan journalist. From San Juan de Unare: Enrique, Yorje, Leo (likely Leo Aguilarte), Euclides, Alias “El Músculo”, and Reibys José Gómez Oliveros “El Gato”. From Los Testigos village or Güiria: Richard and Luis Alberto. 

El Nacional also spoke with a neighbour of a man called Che who was one of the boat’s occupants and was also killed, according to his family. An AP investigation further noted that 60-year-old Luis “Che” Martinez was a “longtime local crime boss, and he made most of his living smuggling drugs and people across borders” and had been jailed by Venezuelan forces in 2020 after a boat he was operating capsized and killed “about two dozen people”. Local residents and acquaintances pointed out that while what he did for a living was “detested”, Che contributed to the annual Virgin of the Valley festival and spent significant money at local shops and restaurants. However, family members also asserted that they did not believe that he was a member of Tren de Aragua.

Reibys José Gómez Oliveros, known as “El Gato,” who was among those killed was reportedly the son of Richarth José Gómez Lugo, alias “El Chapa,” a known local figure previously reportedly charged with robbery. Ricarth was identified by some sources as the controller of the boat’s route via GPS, though he was not on board at the time of the incident. While the U.S. government asserted that members of Tren de Aragua were killed, local sources referred to the boat as belonging to Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns). El Nacional also spoke with a neighbour of one of the men killed who said that he had been making international deliveries for cartels and that “he wasn’t the only one; rather, he was one of the smaller ones. The one who carried the merchandise, delivered it there and back, the one who ran the errand”.

Some social media accounts also claimed that many in the community chose to remain silent or avoided naming the victims out of fear of retaliation, with some users reportedly deleting posts under pressure. This was supported by images shared by @Arr3ch0 showing WhatsApp stories urging the community not to share names. A tweet from @la_katuar mentioned that according to residents of San Juan de Unare, the town was taken over by National Guard to prevent residents from speaking to the press.

Initial statements from Freddy Ñáñez, Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s spokesperson, dismissed the incident as fabricated using artificial intelligence. Though the Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace and Secretary General of the PSUV in Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, acknowledged that the attack occurred, stating: “We have conducted our investigations in our country, and the families of missing persons are there, claiming their relatives. None of them were from the Aragua Train, nor were they drug traffickers, nor were they carrying drugs. A murder was committed against a group of citizens using lethal force.”

The Guardian Trinidad reported on September 6th that a body that washed ashore a beach in Cumana in Trinidad & Tobago noted that some believed this body to be one of the victims of the U.S airstrike in the Caribbean, though this has not been confirmed. Reporting from the Guardian Trinidad quoted local police who said that “the deceased is a Venezuelan national. His right hand and right foot were missing, a piece of clothing was tied around his neck, and his body showed signs of burns.” The article included a graphic image which had been blurred out but appeared to show a body on a beach. By September 8th, News Day Trinidad was reporting that a second body had washed up on the shore and quoted the police commissioner as saying that they would not verify if the two bodies were people killed by the US attack, adding that “The commissioner declined to answer Newsday’s question if a report of an apparent boat wreckage floating near Tobago was being included in the probe and if the inquiry would include searching for evidence that drugs were on the boat at the time of the strike.” According to AP, family members of one of the victims, Che, believe that his body was among one of those which washed up on the shore of Trinidad because “people familiar with Martínez said they knew instantly the stout corpse was Martínez because, on his left wrist, was strapped one of his most treasured belongings: an ostentatious watch.”

Some accounts described the region as being heavily influenced by criminal groups such as the Cartel de los Soles, Tren del Llano, and Tren de Aragua. Other reports noted that two additional boats carrying similar cargo had taken the same route before the strike and were not intercepted.

Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, was interviewed on Fox News the day after the strike and said “We knew exactly who was in that boat, we knew exactly what they were doing and we knew exactly who they represented”. Hegseth declined to give any specifics and later told journalists that “Every boatload of any form of drug that poisons the American people is an imminent threat. And at the DoD our job is to defeat imminent threats. A foreign terrorist organization poisoning your people with drugs coming from a drug cartel is no different than Al Qaeda, and they will be treated as such as they were in international waters”. According to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Trump had the option of conducting a non-lethal maritime interdiction but instead elected to blow up the vessel to send a message, telling reporters “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again.”

Project Ploughshares published an investigation into the use of Canadian technology in the strikes by analyzing the drone footage posted by President Trump and concluded that “This footage displayed critical aspects of L3Harris WESCAM’s [based in Hamilton, Ontario] graphical user interface — the on-screen and often unique and proprietary text, symbols, and reticules visible in the feed of the sensor, which can be seen in both videos posted by President Trump [referring to the September 2nd and September 15th strikes, separately assessed in USMAR250915a].” The investigation then pointed to “a light-blue scale bar used to measure the size and distance of visible objects, a trademark element of WESCAM’s MX-Series sensor interface” and “the crosshairs that mark the centre of the sensor feed, or “line-of-sight” reticle, match in both the footage of the September 2025 airstrikes” as evidence pointing to the Canadian technology but also clarified that they weren’t able to determine “whether the MX-Series sensors directly guided the airstrikes using a laser designator or were instead providing surveillance in coordination with other aircraft”.

The Intercept quoted two American officials who reported that people on board the boat had initially survived the first strike and were then killed in a follow-up attack. The officials also detailed that those on board the boat had noticed the U.S. drone surveillance watching them and appeared to have altered course, turning back to the shore, shortly before the strikes. The Intercept also reported that multiple sources have pointed to Special Operations Command as being responsible for the strike but Col. Allie Weiskopf, SOCOM’s director of public affairs, would not comment on the command’s involvement in the attack.

Additional details about the multiple strikes was reported by the Washington Post on November 28th which spoke with two people with direct knowledge of the operation who said that Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to “kill everybody”. Following the first missile strike, which occurred off the Trinidad coast, “commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.” To comply with the order to kill everyone, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike, which killed the two surviving men. This commander was identified as Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, head of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at the time of the strike who has since been promoted to lead U.S. Special Operations Command (which overseas JSOC), and the operation, led by SEAL Team 6, was reportedly overseen from Fort Bragg in North Carolina. SEAL Team 6’s role was in intelligence collection and targeting for this and several other attacks.

According to the Washington Post, Admiral Bradley had told those on the secure conference call at the time of the strike that the survivors were legitimate targets because “they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo”. However, a briefing from JSOC and provided to the White House rationalized the second strike as meant to sink the boat and remove hazards for navigation, which congressional aides said was a similar explanation given to lawmakers in private briefings. Those familiar with the operation said that the boat was hit a total of four times – two times to kill this on board and two additional times to sink the boat.

@SecWar’s initial response to the Washington Post article on the 28th was to state that “these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be “lethal, kinetic strikes.” The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

Further statements from the Trump Administration instead stated that Secretary Hegseth was not involved with the second strike, with Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt further asserting in press conferences and statements. @PeteHegseth wrote on his personal Twitter/X account “I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since” which seems to further insinuate that he was responsible for the second strike decision and during a cabinet meeting with President Trump on December 2nd said “Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat…we have his back, and the American people are safer…”

On December 4th, the Senate and House Armed Services committees received a classified briefing from Admiral Bradley. In reaction to seeing the full video of the strike during the briefing, Congressman Jim Himes was quoted by CNN reporter @NatashaBertrand as saying ” what I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service…you have two individuals and clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, were killed by the United States.”

Methodological note about classification of those killed in this incident

In documenting this incident, Airwars is following the guidance outlined by independent International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law experts, whereby those on the vessels are understood to be civilians, given that the legal framework in which the strikes are being conducted remains in question.

Airwars has therefore included a civilian casualty count of 11 deaths, and a range of between nine and eleven men – as only nine names were found in local reporting that indicated those killed were men.