Simon Hankinson, Erin Schniederjan
During the past few years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have been released or paroled into the United States, allowed to stay in Temporary Protected Status, or just slipped in without being encountered by authorities (the “gotaways”). Blending among them are hundreds of members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), which, like all migrant gangs, begins by preying on its own countrymen.
In June 2024, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said there were already over 100 ongoing immigration or criminal investigations linked to Tren de Aragua members—and the number can only have grown since.REF In July, the Treasury Department designated Tren de Aragua as a significant Transnational Criminal Organization, saying the gang was “expanding throughout the Western Hemisphere and engaging in diverse criminal activities, such as human smuggling and trafficking, gender-based violence, money laundering, and illicit drug trafficking.”REF In September, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization “with thousands of members across the globe, who operate a sweeping criminal enterprise that traffics human beings for sex, smuggles drugs and weapons, and tortures and dismembers victims.”REF
Background
Tren de Aragua began in the Tocorón prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua and has since expanded in that country and the Americas.REF They reportedly are present in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and now the United States. TdA expanded its network by creating alliances with other gangs and moved into areas following the pattern of Venezuelan migration into the U.S.
Meanwhile in Caracas—despite the governments of former President Hugo Chávez and current President Nicolás Maduro having ruined the economy and allowing corruption and crime to flourish—the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence reported a 25 percent drop in violent deaths from 2021 to 2022.REF It is not implausible to postulate a link to Venezuela’s export of thousands of young criminals, » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/border-security/report/tren-de-aragua-the-latest-transnational-criminal-organization-establish