The attack on Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores is the apparent first American operation inside the country since the capture of Maduro in January.

President Donald Trump says a “swift and lethal kinetic” U.S. strike has killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, whom he called “the infamous leader” of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Boon said gangs started taking control of Venezuela’s mines after former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez suspended all foreign mining concessions in 2011. “There was a vacuum. That’s when the syndicates began to force their way in,” she said.