The families of two Trinidadian men killed in an American military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in October filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the United States government on Tuesday. The case marks the first legal challenge of its kind to President Donald Trump’s policy targeting vessels along narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, names the U.S. government as a defendant and seeks damages for the deaths of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, both from Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago.
According to the complaint, Joseph and Samaroo “had been fishing in waters off the Venezuelan coast and working on farms in Venezuela,” and were returning home to Trinidad when their boat was struck by a missile. The suit claims neither men had ties to drug cartels, and describes the military operation as unlawful and extrajudicial.
“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification,” the complaint asserts. “Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command.”
Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Oct. 14, announced American forces carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” that killed six men aboard a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking” in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. The president included a 33-second surveillance video showing a small boat being struck and exploding. It was the fifth such strike conducted by the U.S. military.
Between Sept. 2 and Jan. 26, the military blew up 36 vessels, purportedly as part of its counternarcotics efforts in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. The strikes have killed at least 116 people, according to data compiled by Military Times.
The White House on Tuesday characterized the Oct. 14 attack as a lawful military operation carried out to protect Americans.
“The October 14th strike was conducted against designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Military Times. “President Trump used his lawful authority to take decisive action against the scourge of illicit narcotics that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans.”
The lawsuit invokes the Death on the High Seas Act, which enables the relatives of people who die in international waters to sue for wrongful death; and the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law allowing foreign nationals to bring civil claims in U.S. courts for violations of international law, including human rights abuses.
The plaintiffs contend, “even if the United States’ lethal strike against Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo occurred during an armed conflict — which it did not — their killings violated customary international law.”
“They constituted an intentional killing of civilians who were not members of an organized armed group engaged in an armed conflict with the United States and were not directly participating in military hostilities against the United States,” the plaintiffs added.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
Tanya Noury is a reporter for Military Times and Defense News, with coverage focusing on the White House and Pentagon.
