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One victim was a fisherman struggling to survive on $100 a month. A second was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet, while a fourth was a bus driver who had fallen on hard times.

The men had little in common beyond their hometowns, which were all beside the Venezuelan sea.

The other thing they had in common: All four were killed in the past two months when the U.S. military attacked boats which President Donald Trump’s administration says were smuggling drugs.

In total, more than 60 people have died since September.

Trump and top U.S. officials have alleged that the boats were being operated by narcoterrorists and cartel members and were bound with deadly drugs for American communities.

The Associated Press learned the identities of four of the men – and pieced together details about at least five others – who were killed, providing the first comprehensive account of those who died in the strikes.

open image in gallery This screen grab from a video posted by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account on September 15, 2025, shows what President Trump says is US military forces conducting a strike on a boat carrying alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea ( Truth Social )

In dozens of interviews in villages on Venezuela’s northeastern coast, from which some of the boats departed, residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narcoterrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang.

Most of the nine men were cre