(NewsNation) — Federal and local officials are urging people to be on alert for the growing presence of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in the United States.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said this is an issue people should take seriously.
“Whether it’s west Texas, east Texas, south Texas, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “These criminal gangs, these criminal elements are here.”
NewsNation reported in July on an internal safety bulletin sent across Border Patrol warning that Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s largest criminal organization, is “known to exploit immigrant populations and carry out acts of violent crime.”
The Miami Herald reported that in the past 10 years, the gang, which traces its origin to a prison in the central state of Aragua, has grown from an estimated 400 members to more than 3,000. Between 2018 and 2023, according to the think tank Insight Crime, Tren de Aragua built a transnational criminal network, setting up cells in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. The group reportedly has a sporadic presence in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil as well.
Tren de Aragua members have been linked to several crimes in the United States. NBC reported that U.S. law enforcement and immigration officials, as of June, had launched more than 100 investigations of crimes connected to suspected members. This includes sex trafficking in Louisiana and the shooting of two New York City police officers, per Department of Homeland Security officials who spoke to NBC. An alleged Tren de Aragua member was arrested in connection to a violent jewelry store heist in Denver, Colorado, where they were caught on video pulling out guns and even pistol-whipping two women.
This summer, the Treasury Department sanctioned the gang, designating them as a Transnational Criminal Organization.
“From its origins as a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, Tren de Aragua has quickly expanded throughout the Western Hemisphere in recent years,” the department said. “With a particular focus on human smuggling and other illicit acts that target desperate migrants, the organization has developed additional revenue sources through a range of criminal activities, such as illegal mining, kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion, and the trafficking of illicit drugs such as cocaine and MDMA.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in July it’s expanding access to additional foreign records systems through new international agreements. It also implemented enhanced screening measures at the border to identify known or suspected gang members.
About $12 million in rewards is being offered by the U.S. State Department for any information leading to the arrests of Tren de Aragua’s main leaders.
U.S. officials aren’t the only ones on the lookout for Tren de Aragua: The Mexican state of Chihuahua has received reports that several Venezuelan gang members have used the El Paso-Juarez corridor, NewsNation partner Border Report wrote last month.
“We have detected — thanks to collaboration with the United States — that a large number of people who belong to Tren de Aragua have passed through Chihuahua,” the state’s Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya said.
