WASHINGTON – Families of two Trinidadian men killed in a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in October are suing the U.S. government, alleging wrongful death and extrajudicial killings.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, marks the first legal challenge against the Trump management’s military campaign targeting alleged drug vessels in the caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, where reportedly killed on october 14th while traveling by boat from Venezuela to Trinidad, according to the lawsuit. Their families state Joseph and Samaroo were “fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela” and were returning home to Las Cuevas in Trinidad and tobago when the boat was struck.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump claimed the strike killed all six men aboard, labeling them “narcoterrorists” and alleging the boat was linked to a Designated Terrorist Organization and involved in drug trafficking. Trump detailed the claim on Truth Social. The Defense Department reports the administration has conducted strikes on three dozen boats,resulting in at least 125 deaths,as the campaign began in early September.
The White House and the Pentagon have been contacted for comment on the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the families were not informed of their loved ones’ deaths, but held memorial services after the October 14th strike and after Joseph and Samaroo went missing.
Joseph’s mother and Samaroo’s sister are pursuing the case on behalf of the surviving family members, with legal portrayal from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Seton Hall Law School professor Jonathan Hafetz, and the ACLU of Massachusetts.
The lawsuit argues the October 14th airstrike violated the Death on the High Seas Act and other federal statutes.
