When the US carried out its first deadly attack on a ship off the coast of Venezuela last September, Chad Joseph called his wife to reassure him that he was not on board.

But a month later, the Trinidadian fatherr of the three was killed in the second attack.

Joseph, 26, often worked in nearby Venezuela as a farm hand and fisherman. He and a work colleague, Rishi Samaroo, 41, are believed to have been among six killed during an October 14, 2025, US airstrike that targeted a small vessel in the Caribbean Sea sent to Trinidad and Tobago.

The families of both men are now suing the US government for wrongful death.

“This was a premeditated and deliberate killing outside the context of war, which makes it murder, plain and simple,” said Jeffrey Stein, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who is representing the families. As it happens host Nil Köksal.

“We want to show the true human toll of these grotesque murders and try to seek some modicum of justice for the family members.”

126 killed so far

Lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Lenore Burnley, Joseph’s mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo’s sister

It is the first legal challenge against US President Donald Trump’s administration over the 36 deadly attacks on ships it has carried out in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing at least 126 people.

The US government has said, without providing evidence, that the people killed on these ships were “narco-terrorists”.

“President Trump has used his legal authority to take decisive action against the scourge of illegal narcotics that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.

But the families of Joseph and Samroo say they were just regular workers who drove home to the Trinidadian fishing village of Las Cuevas.

“Chad and Rishi were not members or affiliated with any drug cartel,” Stein said.

“Our complaint also makes clear that, regardless of any allegations that the victims of these deadly attacks were involved in drug trafficking, all of these attacks were clearly unlawful.”

Who were Joseph and Samaroo?

According to the lawsuit, Joseph often spent weeks, and sometimes months, fishing or working on a farm in Venezuela and sending money home to my family, which is the usual way men in Las Cuevas make a living.

Stein says Joseph’s mother described him as a “good-natured son” who was “always there for his family and friends.”

While he was away for work, the lawsuit states, he called his common-law wife every day. In his last weeks, they discussed the American attacks.

“As news of U.S. military attacks on ships in the Caribbean Sea dominated the news in the region, Mr. Joseph became increasingly fearful of returning,” the lawsuit said. “But he was determined to return to his wife and children as soon as possible.”

On October 12, Joseph called his wife to tell her that he had found a boat bound for Las Cuevas and would be returning home in a few days.

That was the last she ever heard of him.

Samaroo, who sometimes worked alongside Joseph, had been living and working on a farm in Venezuela since 2024, after being paroled for “participating in murder,” the lawsuit said.

His job was to take care of animals and produce cheese. He often sent family selfies with dogs, goats and cows on the farm.

But when his elderly mother fell ill, he decided to return home to take care of her.

He called Korasingh, his sister, on October 12 to tell her he would be catching a ride home on a boat, then sent her a picture of himself wearing a life jacket.

His family never heard from him again.

“If the US government believed that Rishi had done something wrong, they should have arrested, charged and detained him, not killed him,” Korasingh said in a statement about her brother’s murder.

– They have to answer.

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago has explicit support for American attacks. But the lawsuit said the Trinidadian government said it had no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities, and had seen no evidence that any of the strike victims possessed illegal drugs or weapons.

The war on drugs

The Trump administration framed the raids, carried out under the leadership of US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as part of a war on drug cartels, saying they were armed groups.

He said his attacks were in accordance with international rules known as the law of war, or the law of armed conflict.

Stein says the defense doesn’t hold water.

“It’s frankly absurd under any legal framework,” he said. “There is no armed conflict between the United States and any Latin American drug cartel that could justify the use of lethal force against small vessels in the Caribbean or Eastern Pacific.”

Luis Moreno Ocampo, founder and chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said for As it happens in December that drug trafficking is a criminal matter, not an act of war.

“Killing these people is (a crime) against humanity, because they are civilians,” he said.

The suit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, seeks only damages from the US government for the two deaths, not an injunction to prevent further strikes.

Still, Stein says, stopping the strikes is part of the goal.

“We hope to establish that what the Trump administration is doing is clearly illegal,” he said.