Families File First Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Drug Boat Strikes

The families of two Trinidadian men killed in a U.S. military strike on a drug-smuggling boat in October filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government Tuesday, accusing it of extrajudicial killings.

The case is the first federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s campaign of military strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

According to the lawsuit, Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, were killed in a U.S. strike on Oct. 14 while traveling by boat from Venezuela to Trinidad. Their families say the men “had been fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela” and were returning home to Las Cuevas, Trinidad and Tobago, when their boat was hit.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said all six men aboard the vessel were killed. Trump described them as “six male narcoterrorists,” saying the boat was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” and “was trafficking narcotics.” The Defense Department says the Oct. 14 strike was the fifth in a campaign that has targeted about three dozen boats and killed at least 125 people since early September.

The lawsuit says the families were never formally notified of the men’s deaths and only held memorial services after losing contact with them following the strike.

Filed by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and others, the lawsuit alleges violations of the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute.

The Trump administration has argued the strikes are justified because the U.S. is engaged in a non-international armed conflict with drug cartels. The lawsuit disputes that claim, arguing no armed conflict exists and that the laws of war do not apply.

“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the lawsuit says. “Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”

The filing also cites the Trinidadian government as saying it has “no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities” and no evidence they possessed “illegal drugs, guns, or small arms.”

Joseph’s mother, Lenore Burnley, said, “We know this lawsuit won’t bring Chad back to us, but we’re trusting God to carry us through this, and we hope that speaking out will help get us some truth and closure.”

Samaroo’s sister, Sallycar Korasingh, said, “If the U.S. government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”