The families of two men killed in a Caribbean cruise ship strike are suing the US government

Washington – The families of two Trinidadian men killed in a U.S. missile strike on a boat in the Caribbean in October sued the Trump administration in federal court, saying the “targeted and targeted killings have no legal justification.”

Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo were among six passengers who died when the boat they were traveling in was destroyed by a US missile on October 14, 2025, according to a 23-page complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Tuesday. Joseph’s mother and Samaroo’s sister filed a lawsuit on behalf of their families, naming the US as a defendant.

The October strike was part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, most of them targeting boats from Venezuela. Management has held at least 35 strikes since September, as recently as last week. This attack has killed more than 100 people.

President Trump posted photos of the October 14 strike on Truth Social at the time, writing that intelligence showed the boat was “drug-trafficking, associated with illegal narcoterrorist networks, and passing through known territory.” [designated terrorist organization] route.” He said “six male narcoterrorists” were killed.

The lawsuit said Joseph and Samaroo live in Trinidad and Tobago and travel to Venezuela to fish and work on farms. They were returning home to Trinidad and Tobago on the boat that was hit, according to the complaint.

Joseph was 26 years old and had a wife and three children in Trinidad and Tobago, the lawsuit said. The complaint states that he called his wife two days before his death and said that he had found the item to transport back home. His family never heard from him again, the complaint said.

Samaroo was 41 years old and was incarcerated from 2009 to 2024 for “participation in murder,” the lawsuit said. In August 2025, he called his sister and told her that he was in Venezuela working on a farm. Two days before the boat struck, he told his family he was going to get a car back home and would return to Trinidad in a few days, according to the lawsuit. That was the last I heard from him.

The lawsuit states that “Mr. Joseph and Mr. Samaroo were not members of, or connected to, drug cartels.” The administration justified the campaign by saying that the strikes were aimed at drug boats.

“The government of Trinidad has publicly stated that ‘the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities,’ and that it ‘had no information about the victims of the US strikes for possession of illegal drugs, firearms or small arms,'” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit seeks compensation for the two men’s families under two federal laws known as the Death on the High Seas Act and the Alien Tort Statute. The families are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The lawsuit is at least the second legal action taken by the family of those killed in the Trump administration’s boat strikes. In December, relatives of 42-year-old Alejandro Carranza Medina filed a complaint against the US and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, states that Medina was not involved in drug trafficking and was fishing when his boat was destroyed.