Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan Gang Operating Across South America, Into Mexico and the US
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In the past few years, media outlets have reported violent incidents connected to the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) taking place in New York, Chicago, Miami and in Texas. The latest media frenzy involves at least two apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado that have been allegedly taken over by members of the gang after a surveillance video went viral showing armed men patrolling and entering an apartment.
From its origins as a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, Tren de Aragua has quickly expanded throughout the Western Hemisphere in recent years with 5,000 members from South America stretching to the United States.
The US has introduced sanctions to much of the country’s leaders and drug trafficking charges against its Dictator né President Nicolas Maduro. As of June 2024, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014. Approximately 6.1 million are refugees residing outside of the country, mostly in Latin America, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Global Trends report.
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Tren de Aragua was born in the Tocorón prison in the state of Aragua. The group’s name, which roughly translates to the Aragua Train, may have originated from a labor union working on a railway project through the state which was never finished. They have become the most powerful gang in that country and only Venezuelan gang to establish any power beyond its borders.
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From the walls of Tocorón, the gang went on to have a presence in countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, where its factions have managed to make inroads and dominate important criminal economies such as migrant smuggling, human trafficking, extortion, and micro drug trafficking.
As Tren de Aragua has expanded, it has infiltrated local criminal economies in South America, established transnational financial operations, laundered funds through cryptocurrency, and formed ties with the U.S. sanctioned Primeiro Comando da Capital, (PCC) the notorious organized crime group in Brazil that began as a prison gang as well.
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The capture of “Larry Changa” is the most significant blow the gang has been dealt so far. Larry Alvarez Nunez had fled to Chile, establishing the gang’s base in that country before fleeing to Colombia where he was captured in July, 2024.
His detention creates a leadership vacuum the group has not faced before. The fact that “Larry Changa” and other senior leaders of the Tren de Aragua are behind bars could cause the proliferation of new structures within the group, as has happened with the Tren del Coro in Arica, a former Tren de Aragua faction that decided to go independent following the arrest and murder of several of the group’s original leaders.
With the loss of Tocorón prison, Niño Guerrero also stopped receiving important criminal revenues. The prison population was obliged to contribute to the “cause” via a prison tax that ranged from $10 to $15 each week or month, depending on the benefits received. In March 2024, Niño’s brother, Gerso Isaac Guerrero Flores, was arrested in Barcelona, Spain.
Tren de Aragua in Mexico
In August 2023, US Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said that his agency had arrested a Tren de Aragua member attempting to enter the United States. A few months later, in November, the Border Patrol told CNN en Español that the agency had arrested 38 possible Tren de Aragua members between October 2022 and October 2023.
During a press conference on July 15, Secretary of Public Security of Chihuahua Gilberto Loya said that the week prior he attended a meeting on border violence, which was attended by authorities dedicated to containing violence on the border, both from Mexican and US authorities.
Loya reported that the criminal group of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua operates in the state and they have their point of operations in Ciudad Juárez, while Oscar Ibáñez Hernández points out that the criminal group has also associated with local Mexican gangs. “We have had people who said they are members of the Tren de Aragua who have crossed from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso and other cities in the United States,” Loya said.
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The gang has reportedly operated since 2021 in Juárez charging security fees (usually around $300) to Venezuelan migrants who arrived at the border with the intention of crossing into the United States, until the migratory flow ended up moving west towards Sonora.
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Aurora, Colorado Apartment Buildings
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Aurora police patrolling the apartments and interviewing tenants. |
Aurora police arrested a 22-year-old documented TdA member in connection to a July 28 shooting The city and Aurora Police Department established a special task force in collaboration with other local, state and federal partners to specifically address concerns about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and other criminal activity affecting migrant communities. The DEA has acknowledged its ongoing work into TdA across the metro area and are providing the additional resources it provides to combat the issue.
“There are reasons to believe that members of this gang are tied to crimes in the area,” a statement posted on Wednesday said. “However, DPD is not aware of any apartment buildings being ‘taken over’ by this gang in Denver.”
Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky said that “without a doubt that there is sex trafficking now going on” in relationship to the gang’s activities in the city.
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“This is organized. They patrol the property with guns visibly, like they’re not trying to hide them. There’s no repercussion. These are ghosts,” said one resident.
The gang has also been seen dealing drugs in the same apartment building, according to this resident. The resident, who moved out of the apartment building on Wednesday afternoon with the assistance of City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky and congressional candidate John Fabbricatore, “I literally had to borrow from everybody I know to get into a new place. And it’s every bit of money I had.”
Hells Angels Rumor
Posts claiming that Hells Angels was headed to the area began circulating on social media over the weekend. Members of the group have been involved in previous incidents in Colorado, including a deadly shootout between it and the Mongols in 2020 where a ranking Hells Angel member was killed.
Sources CBSNews, Insight Crime, InSight Crime, FOX31, Fox News, 9News, AuroraPD, OFAC, USA Today, Infobae, El Diario
Source: https://www.borderlandbeat.com/2024/09/tren-de-aragua-venezuelan-gang.html
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