The Venezuelan Tren de Aragua transnational criminal organization will start being included in U.S. Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) gang-affiliation apprehension reports starting this week.
In accordance with the most recent police records report, CBP officials arrested 41 people who were thought to be Tren de Aragua-affiliated in Fiscal Year 2023 and an extra six in Fiscal Year 2024 to time. CPB noted that the FY2023 monitoring of Tren de Aragua individuals began in March 2023 and not on October 1, 2022, the start of FY2023.
The misgivings of Tren de Aragua people, since CBP began reporting them, were just surpassed in numbers by the fear of members of 18th Street, MS- 13, the Paisas, the Sureños gangs, and the “other” group class — placing Tren de Aragua seventh on a list of over 50 gangs CBP monitors.
In 2012, The Tren de Aragua, a regional trade union business for employees working on a regional railroad project in the state of Aragua, was founded. Over the past century, Tren de Aragua experienced a rapid growth that allowed it to turn into a complete- fledged international crime organization that engages a wide array of activities ranging from homicide, theft, extortion, contraband, kidnapping, and drug, people, and arms trafficking.
The fugitive group is present in many Latin American nations, including Chile and Peru, as well as in several U.S. cities like New York, Miami, and Chicago. Authorities at the FBI believe Tren de Aragua users does have forged a deal with the Peruvian MS- 13 group in New York.
Enforcement and Removal Operations ( ERO ) officials in New York apprehended Venezuelan national Johan Jose Cardenas Silva, an unidentified Tren de Aragua member wanted by Peruvian authorities on conspiracy, assault, and aggravated theft charges in early May.
ERO officials claimed Cardenas Silva entered the United States without authorization in October of this year and was detained by NYPD officers in March for attempting to sell illegal weapons in a class area, inciting injury to a 17-year-old.
The communist government in Venezuela has consistently argued that the Venezuelan-born gang “does no exist,” which is believed to possess allowed Tren de Aragua to significantly expand its criminal actions to other nations.
Otherwise, regime officials have repeatedly claimed that Tren de Aragua is part of a therefore- called “myth” or a “fictional” global media narrative meant to damage the renegade regime’s image.
Dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed that his regime “dismantled” the gang in September 2023, when Venezuelan security forces conducted a dubious “raid” on the Tocorón prison, an inmate facility located in Aragua that served as the criminal organization’s main headquarters.
The facility, which was monitored in part by the Bolivarian National Guard, was internally controlled by the Tren de Aragua, which transformed the facility into a full- fledged community with features such as nightclubs, banking offices, pool, baseball stadium, and its own zoo and parks, among other amenities.
Following the September 2023 “raid” on Tocorón, the whereabouts of Tren de Aragua’s leader, Héctor” the Child” Guerrero, remain unknown. Local Venezuelan organizations claim that Guerrero “negotiated” with the Maduro regime to give control of the now-defunct prison to prisoners who were then able to flee safely before the raid took place.
According to reports released in April, the Maduro government has employed a criminal “mega-gang” to deport Venezuelan socialist rebels abroad.
In February, Venezuelan dissident Ronald Ojeda was abducted from his residence in Santiago, Chile, by individuals linked to the Tren de Aragua. Ten days after his abduction, Ojeda’s body was discovered buried inside a suitcase hidden beneath a concrete structure.
Three years after the gang was founded, Chilean authorities later discovered that one of the suspects in the killing of Ojeda was once a staff member of the Aragua state governor’s office.
In remarks made during a national entrepreneurship event held in Chile in April, Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich claimed Tren de Aragua’s activities are” not autonomous” from the Maduro regime.
The Tren de Aragua does not strike in any particular way. The Tren de Aragua strikes with a procedure, with a matrix of operation, with a logic that always does exactly the same thing”, Bullrich explained at the time. ” It settles in a certain place. It comes with a group in general of Venezuelan nationality”.
Therefore, it is crucial to assess whether it is an organization that is not autonomous from the state or not. She said,” I have a feeling that it is not a state-owned entity.”
A report that was released by the Chilean news channel Meganoticias in late April revealed that one of Tren de Aragua’s human trafficking cells had been able to ensnap into Chile’s national police. Two members of the Chilean Investigative Police, who are currently in custody alongside other suspects, provided direct information to the cell, which had been dedicated to the sexual exploitation of women.
After the arrest of a 17-year-old Venezuelan minor who denounced being subjected to sexual exploitation by the Tren de Aragua cell, the human trafficking cell was finally put to rest at the conclusion of a lengthy investigation that started in late 2022.
Christian K. Caruzo is a writer from Venezuela who writes about life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter , here.
