most powerful and extensive criminal organizations in Latin America. Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias Nino Guerrero, or "child warrior", died at age 42 in a raid announced Friday by president Donald Trump and later confirmed by Venezuela.

Founded in Venezuela in 2014, Tren de Aragua has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and is believed to be active in eight South American countries including Colombia, Peru and Chile. It is accused of drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes, and Guerrero had a $5 million US bounty on his head. Guerrero was from the city of Maracay, about 100 km (60 miles) from Caracas and after dropping out of high school quickly got involved in crime. By 2010, at the age of 26, he was already accused of robbery, murder and kidnapping.  He was imprisoned in a jail called Tocoron in the state of Aragua -- hence the name of the gang -- escaped, and was caught again two years later and sent back to Tocoron. That's when he started to build the criminal organization now known as Tren de Aragua while working from Tocoron, which he and fellow inmates effectively controlled. Luis Izquiel, a lawyer and professor of criminology at Venezuela's Central University, called Guerrero a criminal mastermind. He said Guerrero's leadership stood out "not so much for its ferocity, or his inhumanity in committing crime, but rather because he was a person with a criminal mind who managed to expand the tentacles of the Tren de Aragua and strengthen them". (Bssnews)