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First wrongful death lawsuit filed against Trump administration over drug boat strikes
The families of two Trinidadian men who were killed in an Oct. 14 strike on an alleged drug boat accused the U.S. in a lawsuit Tuesday of wrongful death and extrajudicial killings.
First wrongful death lawsuit filed against Trump administration over drug boat strikes www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
— Afra Kroon 🇳🇱 (@afrakroon.bsky.social) 2026-01-27T15:17:26.818Z
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/first-wrongful-death-lawsuit-filed-trump-administration-drug-boat-stri-rcna256022
WASHINGTON — Family members of two Trinidadian men who were killed in a U.S. strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in October sued the U.S. government Tuesday, accusing it of wrongful death and extrajudicial killings.
The lawsuit is the first of its kind to be filed against the Trump administration in federal court over its military campaign against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, were killed in the U.S. military strike Oct. 14 while they were on a boat traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad, their family members allege in the lawsuit. The lawsuit says Joseph and Samaroo “had been fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela.” It says they were returning to their homes in Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago when their boat was struck.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump said the strike killed all six men on the boat. Trump described them as “six male narcoterrorists” and said that the boat was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” and that it “was trafficking narcotics.” The strike was the administration’s fifth in a campaign that has struck three dozen boats and killed at least 125 people, according to the Defense Department, since it began in early September.....
The lawsuit quotes the Trinidadian government as saying that “the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities” and that it had “no information of the victims of U.S. strikes being in possession of illegal drugs, guns, or small arms.”
Joseph’s mother and Samaroo’s sister say in the lawsuit that the two men were the primary breadwinners for their families and were simply returning home from working in Venezuela when they were killed.
The lawsuit is the first of its kind to be filed against the Trump administration in federal court over its military campaign against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, were killed in the U.S. military strike Oct. 14 while they were on a boat traveling from Venezuela to Trinidad, their family members allege in the lawsuit. The lawsuit says Joseph and Samaroo “had been fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela.” It says they were returning to their homes in Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago when their boat was struck.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump said the strike killed all six men on the boat. Trump described them as “six male narcoterrorists” and said that the boat was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” and that it “was trafficking narcotics.” The strike was the administration’s fifth in a campaign that has struck three dozen boats and killed at least 125 people, according to the Defense Department, since it began in early September.....
The lawsuit quotes the Trinidadian government as saying that “the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities” and that it had “no information of the victims of U.S. strikes being in possession of illegal drugs, guns, or small arms.”
Joseph’s mother and Samaroo’s sister say in the lawsuit that the two men were the primary breadwinners for their families and were simply returning home from working in Venezuela when they were killed.
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