El Paso on high alert as dangerous Venezuelan gang, described as ‘MS-13 on steroids,’ invades US

The Mexican border state of Chihuahua is on high alert over members of a violent Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, or TdA, after reports that members of the gang were traveling through the state to cross the U.S. border near El Paso, Texas.

Chihuahua Public Security Secretary Gilberto Loya warned Monday that Mexican authorities have spotted a large number of individuals they suspect are members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) operating in the state and traveling through it to cross the U.S.-Mexico border near El Paso, according to a report by the Latin Times.

The report came after the Treasury Department in July sanctioned TdA as a transnational criminal organization. According to the department, the gang is involved in human trafficking, extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking, posing a “lethal criminal threat” in the Western Hemisphere.

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“Tren de Aragua uses its transnational networks to traffic people, especially migrant women and girls, across borders for sex trafficking and debt bondage,” the Treasury Department said in a statement at the time. “Members of Tren de Aragua often kill them and publicize their deaths as a threat to others.”

U.S. officials warned earlier this month that the gang, which originated in Aragua, Venezuela, is infiltrating the United States, with Rep. Tony Gonzales, Republican of Texas, describing TdA as “MS-13 on steroids.”

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“They’re extremely aggressive. It’s not that they’re a passive group, or that they’re just going to go about their business,” Gonzales said in a phone interview with Fox News Digital earlier this month. “They come from Venezuela, one of the most war-torn countries of the last decade. So they’re battle-hardened in many ways. And they’ve made this journey from there to here. But they’re also becoming … more organized and more brazen.”

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Gang members are suspected of being behind a recent video showing a group of men armed with handguns and rifles bursting through the doors of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, where residents say the complex has been overrun with gang activity.

“This is organized. They’re visibly patrolling the property with weapons, like they’re not trying to hide them. There’s no repercussions. These are ghosts,” said one resident who spoke to Fox News Digital anonymously.

The gang has been seen dealing drugs from the apartment complex, another resident told Fox News Digital, while Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky told Fox News Digital there is “without a doubt sex trafficking going on” when it comes to TdA’s operations in the city.

In Mexico, Loya said the group is responsible for several killings in central Mexico and he hopes the border state can get ahead of the problem.

“We have discovered – through collaboration with the United States – that a large number of people who belong to Tren de Aragua have passed through Chihuahua,” Loya said, according to a translation by Border Report. “Given what is happening in (Central Mexico), we want to be at the forefront here in Chihuahua.”

Neither the White House nor U.S. Customs and Border Patrol immediately responded to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis via the Fox News Digital Immigration Center.

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