More than 60 people have been killed since September when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs.

The strikes have hit boats in international waters in the Caribbean and more recently in the Pacific.

The U.S. government has released scant details about the people slain in the attacks, beyond lodging broad allegations that the boats were ferrying narcotics and their crews were hardened narco-terrorists.

Venezuelan officials, meanwhile, have insisted that drug trafficking is practically nonexistent in their country and have yet to acknowledge the deaths of any citizens in the missile strikes.

The truth was far more nuanced The Associated Press found in dozens of interviews with residents in the Paria Peninsula, in Venezuela’s breathtaking northeastern coast from which some of the targeted boats departed.

The dead men were indeed running drugs, but they were hardly members of drug cartels or Tren de Aragua, or narco-terrorists.

The AP identified four men – and pieced together details about at least five others – who were killed in the military attacks, providing the first comprehensive account of those who died in the strikes.

Most of the nine men were crewing the boats for the first or second time, hoping to scrape together enough money to feed their families.

Most were young men working as fishermen, laborers and motorcycle taxi drivers. All of the residents and relatives interviewed by AP requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

The gangs and the Venezuelan government have repressed the flow of information in the seaside villages, making it difficult for relatives to glean details about their deceased loved ones.

They said they have confirmed the deaths through word-of-mouth and inexplicit social media posts that sought to convey information about the dead men without drawing the attention of Venezuelan authorities.

They have also made what they described as reasonable deductions.

The men have not returned phone calls or texts in weeks, or reached out to say they were okay. Venezuelan authorities have searched some of the homes of the dead men.

One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal who smuggled drugs and people across borders, according to relatives and others who knew him.

He also contributed to the town’s annual festival. A third was a former military cadet who dropped out of school and became a lookout for smugglers. And a fourth was a down-on-his luck bus driver who was facing dire financial circumstances after his bus broke down and he couldn’t afford the repairs.

AP Video shot by Juan Arraez

Illustration by Peter Hamlin