U.S. court case and $5 million reward preceded strike on Tren de Aragua leader

Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, was identified by U.S. and Venezuelan authorities as a leader of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal network that emerged from Tocorón prison in Aragua state. Tren de Aragua was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in July 2024 as a transnational criminal organisation. U.S. Southern Command is the Pentagon command responsible for U.S. military activity in Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. State Department reward programme offers money for information leading to arrests or convictions in selected national-security and criminal cases. Jay Clayton, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair and U.S. attorney in New York, was nominated by Trump on Thursday to become director of national intelligence, according to AP.