A federal lawsuit against the Trump administration was filed on Tuesday by family members of two men killed by the one of the airstrikes on numerous Venezuelan boats allegedly containing drugs conducted by the White House.
The complaint was brought by family of Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, two Trinidadian men killed in an airstrike on their boat in October of last year, according to Reuters. Joseph and Samaroo were among six people aboard the vessel when it was struck by U.S. military forces conducting what the administration has described as a campaign against suspected drug traffickers on "go-fast" boats operating in international waters. The lawsuit contends that neither Joseph nor Samaroo was involved in drug trafficking and that the strike amounted to an extrajudicial killing.
The complaint was lodged on January 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights and other civil rights organizations. The plaintiffs include Joseph's mother and Samaroo's sister. Both men were from the small Trinidadian fishing village of Las Cuevas.
The federal complaint invokes the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows foreign nationals to pursue wrongful death claims for deaths occurring beyond any country's territorial waters, and the Alien Tort Statute, a provision that allows non-U.S. citizens to sue in U.S. courts for some violations of international law.
Plaintiffs argue the Trump administration lacked legal authority to carry out lethal strikes in international waters against civilians. They assert the attacks were neither authorized by Congress nor conducted within a clearly defined armed conflict under international law. U.S. officials have defended the military operations by characterizing them as part of an effort to disrupt drug trafficking networks.
The Massachusetts lawsuit is part of growing scrutiny over the Trump administration's maritime campaign, which began in September 2025 and has included at least 36 maritime strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific. Officials have publicly stated these actions targeted vessels engaged in drug trafficking, and the administration has released footage of small craft exploding after strikes. The strikes are estimated to have killed at least 125 people, many of whom they contend were noncombatants with no verified links to narcotics trafficking.
Last December, separate civil liberties groups also filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking release of the internal Justice Department legal opinion that justifies the strikes, arguing the public has a right to understand the legal rationale for the lethal operations.
The Trump administration has largely stood by the campaign, portraying it as a necessary component of its broader efforts to combat drug trafficking and national security threats emanating from parts of Latin America. Officials have declined to elaborate on classified legal opinions justifying the strikes, citing operational security and ongoing litigation.
