Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that operates throughout South America, Mexico and the US ~ Borderland Beat

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on many of the country’s leaders and drug trafficking allegations against its dictator, now president Nicolas Maduro. As of June 2024, nearly 8 million Venezuelans had left the country since 2014. About 6.1 million are refugees living outside the country, mostly in Latin America, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Global Trends report.

Many have joined the Central American migrants on their journey north. Gang members have set up cells in various regions along the route to manage and exploit the smuggling and trafficking routes.

Due to corruption and violence, Venezuelan police designated “peace zones” that they did not patrol or enter, allowing criminal activity to flourish and local gangs to gain power. This power extended into the prison system, with the prisons being completely controlled by the criminal gangs themselves.

Tren de Aragua poses a deadly criminal threat in the region. For example, Tren de Aragua uses its transnational networks to traffic people, particularly migrant women and girls, across borders for sex trafficking and debt bondage. When victims attempt to escape this exploitation, Tren de Aragua members often kill them and publicize their deaths as a threat to others.

Tren de Aragua was born in the Tocorón prison in the state of Aragua. The group’s name, which roughly translates as the Aragua Train, may have come from a union that worked on a state railway project that was never completed. They have become the most powerful gang in that country and the only Venezuelan gang to have any power outside its borders.

Tren de Aragua’s base in Venezuela was the Tocorón prison. After the prison was dismantled by 11,000 Venezuelan soldiers in September 2023, the gang leaders fled. From Tocorón, Niño Guerrero built an operations center full of luxury accommodations. He lived in a two-story house inside the prison, where he received all the visitors he wanted. He also had access to a swimming pool, baseball field, discotheque, restaurants, and even a zoo.

From the walls of Tocorón, the gang spread to countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Bolivia. There, the groups managed to gain a foothold and dominate important criminal economies, such as human smuggling, human trafficking, extortion and small-scale drug trafficking.

As Tren de Aragua grew, it infiltrated local criminal economies in South America, set up transnational financial operations, laundered money through cryptocurrencies, and established ties with the U.S.-sanctioned Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil’s notorious organized crime group that also began as a prison gang.

The arrest of “Larry Changa” is the biggest blow the gang has suffered to date. Larry Alvarez Nunez had fled to Chile, where he established the gang’s base before fleeing to Colombia, where he was captured in July 2024.

His detention creates a leadership vacuum that the group has not experienced before. The fact that “Larry Changa” and other senior leaders of the Tren de Aragua are behind bars could lead to the proliferation of new structures within the group, as happened with the Tren del Coro in Arica, a former Tren de Aragua faction that decided to become independent after the arrest and murder of several of the group’s original leaders.

With the loss of Tocorón prison, Niño Guerrero also stopped receiving significant criminal income. The prison population was required to contribute to the “business” through a prison tax that ranged from $10 to $15 per week or month, depending on the benefits received. In March 2024, Niño’s brother, Gerso Isaac Guerrero Flores, was arrested in Barcelona, ​​​​Spain.

At a press conference on July 15, Chihuahua Public Security Secretary Gilberto Loya said he had attended a meeting on border violence the week before, attended by officials working to curb violence at the border, both from Mexican and U.S. authorities.

Loya reported that the criminal group of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua operates in the state and that they have their base of operations in Ciudad Juárez, while Oscar Ibáñez Hernández points out that the criminal group also has ties to local Mexican gangs. “We have had people who say they are members of Tren de Aragua and who have gone from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso and other cities in the United States,” Loya said.

Members of the Tren de Aragua gang have been linked to the November 2023 kidnapping, torture and murder of a Venezuelan ex-police officer near Miami, Florida. Tren de Aragua members are also suspected in the murder of Georgia student Laken Riley and the shootings of two NYPD officers.

Apartment Buildings in Aurora, Colorado

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NewsNation that the men seen on doorbell camera video were members of Tren de Aragua. APD Interim Chief Heather Morris responded to the claims on Friday, saying gang members had not taken over the compound.

“I’m not saying there aren’t gang members that don’t live in this community,” she said in a video posted to social media. “But what we’re learning here is that gang members have not taken over this complex.”

Aurora police are patrolling the apartments and questioning tenants.

The Aurora Police Department has arrested a 22-year-old documented TdA member in connection with a July 28 shooting. The City and Aurora Police Department have formed a special task force in conjunction with other local, state, and federal partners to specifically address concerns about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and other criminal activity affecting immigrant communities. The DEA has acknowledged its continued work on TdA throughout the metropolitan area and is offering the additional resources it provides to combat the problem.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said: “The Aurora District Attorney’s Office is preparing court documents to seek an emergency court order to vacate apartment buildings where Venezuelan gangs are operating by declaring the properties a ‘criminal nuisance,'” Coffman said. “… I strongly believe the best course of action is to close these buildings and ensure this never happens again.”

Denver police also previously responded to the situation, saying they were “not aware” of any apartment buildings in the city being taken over by Tren de Aragua.

“There are reasons to believe that members of this gang have ties to crimes in the area,” a statement posted 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 there is “without a doubt” sex trafficking associated with the gang’s activities in the city.

“This is organized. They are visibly patrolling the grounds with weapons, as if they are not trying to hide them. There is no repercussion. These are ghosts,” said one resident.

The gang has also been seen dealing drugs in the same apartment building, according to the resident. The resident, who moved out of the apartment building Wednesday afternoon with the help of City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky and congressional candidate John Fabbricatore, said, “I literally had to borrow from everyone I know to find a new place. And it was all the money I had.”

Hells Angels rumor

Reports claiming that Hells Angels were moving into 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 the group and the Mongols in 2020 that left a high-profile Hells Angels member dead.

Aurora police responded to claims on social media that members of the Hells Angels in Colorado were headed to the Denver suburb to fight the gang, saying they “do not find the reports credible.”

Some of the posts said the group was responding to claims that an apartment complex in Aurora had been taken over by the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang. However, one video was from July and showed bikers at an Insanos Motorcycle Club event in Brazil. The other video is from the recent Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Sources CBSNews, Insight Crime, InSight Crime, FOX31, Fox News, 9News, AuroraPDOFAC, USA Today, Infobae, El Diario