By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-19 14:01:59 | Updated at 2024-11-23 14:15:44
4 days ago
The violent Venezuelan super gang Tren de Aragua has expanded to take foothold in 16 states across the US, Homeland Security officials have warned.
Tren de Aragua (TdA) territory now covers half of America's population, posing challenges for law enforcement agencies across the US who are trying to combat the mob's wave of crime.
The gang has spread its tentacles across Virginia, Washington DC, Montana and Wyoming, according to an internal Homeland Security department intelligence memo obtained by The New York Post.
Officials warn that TdA's arrival in the US capital and nearby Virginia coincides with 'increases in migrant populations' in the area, the memo states.
TdA is reportedly targeting DC because the city provides easy travel access to wealthy northern Virginian suburbs where gangsters are carrying out thefts, robberies and assaults.
The mob's bloodthirsty members have also increased their 'violent tendencies' and has become more engaged with 'lower-level fraud and theft schemes' that allow them to send stolen funds 'back to South America as a means of financing additional criminal enterprises', according to the intelligence document.
Homeland security officials warn that as the 'population of Venezuelan nationals continues to increase, the potential for violent TdA migrants is highly probable'.
In addition to its expanded territory, TdA also holds footholds in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Colorado.
Suspected TdA members pose as if they were carrying gun in the streets of the New York
TdA embedded members in the waves if migrants who entered the US at the Mexico border during the Biden Administration.
Border Patrol sources told the Post that TdA gangsters were 'easily released' into the country because of a lack of information sharing between the US and Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro also refuses to accept deportation flights that carry migrants back from America to Venezuela.
President-elect Donald Trump said cracking down on TdA is a 'top priority' for the incoming administration and has vowed to stage the 'largest deportation operation in American history'.
Stories of the violent gang's presence across America have increased over the last few years. Arrest data shared with DailyMail.com last month revealed that the gangsters were now operating in more US cities than originally feared.
Last week the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation warned that the notorious supergang is now terrorizing 'every major city' in Tennessee.
Director David Rausch warned that the group was on a path to increased violence and have asked the governor for funding to put an end to their operations, before they engage in more retail theft and take on the drug trade.
He added: 'Recently there was a video that they showed, where they shot a cartel member 31 times, broad daylight on video and posted it to social media.'
Congressman Andy Ogles said this issue is one he had been keeping a close eye on, he added: 'Every small town in America is a border town because of the immigration crisis.'
The Venezuelan gang took over a Texas motel earlier this year, turning it into a base for prostitution and drug-dealing
Estefania Primera, 36, is the alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua gang that operated out of the Gateway Hotel in Texas. Her street name is La Barbie and she is a heavily-tattooed and pierced illegal migrant
Focus on the gang jumped after footage from a security camera surfaced on social media showing a group of heavily armed men brazenly entering an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado
In July, the Biden administration sanctioned the gang, placing it alongside MS-13 from El Salvador and the Mafia-styled Camorra from Italy on a list of transnational criminal organizations and offering $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three leaders.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in September declared TdA a Tier 1 threat, directing state police to target the gang and paving the way for stiffer penalties for members.
Focus on the gang jumped after footage from a security camera surfaced on social media showing a group of heavily armed men brazenly entering an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado.
That prompted Trump to vow to 'liberate Aurora' from Venezuelans he falsely said were 'taking over the whole town.'
Police have called the reports exaggerated but nonetheless acknowledged that it is investigating 10 gang members for involvement in several crimes, including a July homicide.
Elsewhere, from the heartland to major cities like New York and Chicago, the gang has been blamed for sex trafficking, drug smuggling and police shootings as well as the exploitation of migrants.
TdA members were busted in Chicago - dozens in less than two years - and several were allowed to walk free, according to the Post.
At least 30 suspected gang members were arrested by Chicago Police between January 2023 and September 2024 for crimes ranging from traffic violations to robberies and drug offences, the outlet reported.
The gang has racked up more than 500 arrests this year in New York City alone, according to October crime statistics obtained by the newspaper.
Earlier this year Republican members of Congress, led by Florida senator Marco Rubio, called on the Biden administration to designate the gang as a 'Transnational Criminal Organization', reported CNN.
The letter they sent to Biden read: 'If left unchecked, they will unleash an unprecedented reign of terror, mirroring the devastation it has already inflicted in communities throughout Central and South America, most prominently in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru.'
Venezuela's most violent gang Tren de Aragua has moved its headquarters to just across the US border in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez
TdA - led by Hector 'Niño' Guerrero, who escaped from the Tocoron prison in Venezuela along with other gang leaders just before a police raid last year - adopted its name between 2013 and 2015, according to CNN, but began operations years before.
The group's leadership were reportedly running out of the notorious Tocorón prison, which they controlled.
Inside the prison walls, officials found a swimming pool and several restaurants and weapons, including automatic rifles, machine guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
The gang started by extorting businesses in Venezuela, then spread into human trafficking, given the large number of migrants leaving Venezuela.
TdA controls routes taken by Venezuelans and other South American migrants heading south to relatively prosperous Chile and other destinations in South America or Europe.
The group has also been linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, contract killings, smuggling and organized retail theft from Panama to Brazil and along the Andean corridor.
