The families of two men believed to have been killed in one of President Trump’s strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday, calling the attacks illegal “murders” that the government must answer for.
Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, both Trinidadians, were killed in October as they traveled by boat from Venezuela.
Joseph’s mother and Samaroo’s sister filed the lawsuit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, which cast the case as a way to challenge the ongoing campaign that Mr. Trump has justified as a war against drug smugglers.
The lawsuit said the two men had been working in Venezuela and caught a ride on the boat in order to get home to see family. They died in the attack on Oct. 14, along with four others.
“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command,” the lawsuit said.
The case cites the Death on the High Seas Act, which governs wrongful deaths, and the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that lets noncitizens sue in U.S. courts.
The strikes began in September, and at least 125 people are believed to have been slain.
Mr. Trump has said the U.S. has solid evidence that each vessel was involved in drug trafficking. He has claimed a massive drop in waterborne trafficking since his campaign began.
Videos of the strikes have been posted to government websites and social media accounts, and the lawsuit said Mr. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been “boasting about and celebrating their own role in killing defenseless people.”
Joseph was 26 and lived in Trinidad and Tobago with his common-law wife and three children. He regularly worked in Venezuela to provide for them, the lawsuit says.
He had been working abroad since April and planned to return last summer, but was thwarted by engine trouble on one boat. On Oct. 12, he called his wife to say he had found a new ride and would be home in a couple of days.
After the Oct. 14 boat strike, his family dialed his phone, but the line was dead. The family held memorial services on Oct. 22 and Nov. 22.
“As no one has heard from Mr. Joseph since October 12, his family has concluded that Mr. Joseph was a passenger on board the boat that the United States destroyed on or about October 14,” the lawsuit says.
Samaroo, 41, had served a 15-year sentence for a homicide conviction before his parole in 2024. He ended up in Venezuela last summer, working on a farm. On Oct. 12, he let his family know he was going to come home to visit his ailing mother.
His family held a service on Oct. 24.
The Washington Times has sought comment from the Justice Department.
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, which has been a particularly friendly court for legal challenges to Mr. Trump during his second term. The plaintiffs said the law allowed them to pick any district court and they chose Massachusetts because of its “venerable history of adjudicating admiralty disputes.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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