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Thursday, September 5, 2024

Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan Gang Operating Across South America, Into Mexico and the US

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat 



In the past few years, media outlets have reported violent incidents connected to the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) taking place in New York, Chicago, Miami and in Texas. The latest media frenzy involves at least two apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado that have been allegedly taken over by members of the gang after a surveillance video went viral showing armed men patrolling and entering an apartment.

From its origins as a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, Tren de Aragua has quickly expanded throughout the Western Hemisphere in recent years with 5,000 members from South America stretching to the United States. 

With a particular focus on human smuggling and other extortion type acts targeting desperate migrants, the organization has developed additional revenue sources through a range of criminal activities, such as illegal mining, kidnapping, human trafficking, cybercrime, theft, extortion, and drug smuggling.

While they have not fully entered the level of other cartels in the drug world, they have taken advantage of Venezuela's corruption, pr and violence to smuggle migrants first into Colombia and more recently north to Mexico and the United States.


The US has introduced sanctions to much of the country's leaders and drug trafficking charges against its Dictator né President Nicolas Maduro. As of June 2024, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014. Approximately 6.1 million are refugees residing outside of the country, mostly in Latin America, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) Global Trends report.

Many have joined Central American migrants on the journey north. Gang members have set up cells in various regions along the way to manage and take advantage of the smuggling and human trafficking routes.


Due to corruption and violence, Venezuelan police designated "peace zones" which they did not patrol or enter allowing criminal activity to flourish and local gangs to gain power. The power stretched into the prison systems with the prisons being controlled completely by the criminal gangs themselves.

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

InSight Crime has cataloged a lengthy history of the growing gang that recently saw the US issue sanctions on the founders of the gang and labeled them a transnational organized crime group. Currently, up to $5 million rewards are offered for the gang's leadership (pranes) including Hector “Niño Guerrero” Rusthenford.


Tren de Aragua was born in the Tocorón prison in the state of Aragua. The group’s name, which roughly translates to the Aragua Train, may have originated from a labor union working on a railway project through the state which was never finished. They have become the most powerful gang in that country and only Venezuelan gang to establish any power beyond its borders.


Tren de Aragua’s base in Venezuela was Tocorón prison. Following the dismantling of the prison by 11,000 Venezuelan soldiers, in September, 2023, the gang leaders fled. From inside Tocorón, Niño Guerrero built a center of operations filled with luxurious accommodations. He lived in a two-story house inside the prison, where he received any 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 went on to have a presence in countries including Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, where its factions have managed to make inroads and dominate important criminal economies such as migrant smuggling, human trafficking, extortion, and micro drug trafficking.

As Tren de Aragua has expanded, it has infiltrated local criminal economies in South America, established transnational financial operations, laundered funds through cryptocurrency, and formed ties with the U.S. sanctioned Primeiro Comando da Capital, (PCC) the notorious organized crime group in Brazil that began as a prison gang as well.


Tren de Aragua’s expansion turned transnational around 2018, when the gang attempted to establish itself on the Venezuela-Colombia border. The gang has however seen violent encounters with Colombian paramilitary groups including the AGC and ELN, as well as former FARC dissidents that have controlled the border regions between the two countries.


The capture of "Larry Changa" is the most significant blow the gang has been dealt so far. Larry Alvarez Nunez had fled to Chile, establishing the gang's base in that country before fleeing to Colombia where he was captured in July, 2024.

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

With the loss of Tocorón prison, Niño Guerrero also stopped receiving important criminal revenues. The prison population was obliged to contribute to the “cause” via a prison tax that ranged from $10 to $15 each week or month, depending on the benefits received. In March 2024, Niño’s brother, Gerso Isaac Guerrero Flores, was arrested in Barcelona, Spain.

Tren de Aragua currently lacks control over US migrant smuggling and human trafficking routes. But human smuggling and trafficking routes along the US-Mexico border are dominated by Mexican groups, leaving little room for Tren de Aragua to establish a foothold. Control of such routes was key to the gang’s expansion in South America.

Tren de Aragua in Mexico

In August 2023, US Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said that his agency had arrested a Tren de Aragua member attempting to enter the United States. A few months later, in November, the Border Patrol told CNN en Español that the agency had arrested 38 possible Tren de Aragua members between October 2022 and October 2023.

During a press conference on July 15, Secretary of Public Security of Chihuahua Gilberto Loya said that the week prior he attended a meeting on border violence, which was attended by authorities dedicated to containing violence on the border, both from Mexican and US authorities.

“One of the topics discussed was how the Tren de Aragua gang phenomenon has been advancing, especially among these Venezuelan people, and the monitoring we have from here, from Ciudad Juárez, which is specifically where it has its main point of operations,” were part of Loya's statements.

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


The gang has reportedly operated since 2021 in Juárez charging security fees (usually around $300) to Venezuelan migrants who arrived at the border with the intention of crossing into the United States, until the migratory flow ended up moving west towards Sonora.


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



Aurora, Colorado Apartment Buildings

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NewsNation that the men seen in a doorbell cam video were Tren de Aragua members. APD Interim Chief Heather Morris responded to the claims last Friday and said gang members had not taken over the complex. 



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

Today, a Denver law firm, hired to look into an alleged gang takeover of an Aurora apartment building, says they found the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang began taking over the Whispering Pines Apartments in late 2023. Since then, the gang has engaged in violent assaults, threats of murder, extortion, strongarm tactics, and child prostitution as they have exerted a "stranglehold" on the Aurora apartment complex. That's according to a letter sent to Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor, and the interim police chief that was obtained by CBS News Colorado. The firm says it represents the lender for Whispering Pines Apartments.

"The evidence we have reviewed indicates that gang members are engaging in flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations," wrote T. Markus Funk, a former U.S. Attorney.

Aurora police patrolling the apartments and interviewing tenants.

Aurora police arrested a 22-year-old documented TdA member in connection to a July 28 shooting The city and Aurora Police Department established a special task force in collaboration with other local, state and federal partners to specifically address concerns about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and other criminal activity affecting migrant communities. The DEA has acknowledged its ongoing work into TdA across the metro area and are providing the additional resources it provides to combat the issue.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman stated "The Aurora City Attorney's Office is preparing court documents to request an emergency court order to clear the apartment buildings where Venezuelan gang activity has been occurring by declaring the properties a 'Criminal Nuisance,'" Coffman said. "... I strongly believe that the best course of action is to shut these buildings down and make sure that this never happens again."

The Denver Police Department also responded to the situation earlier and said it was “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 are tied to crimes in the area,” a statement posted on 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 that "without a doubt that there is sex trafficking now going on" in relationship to the gang's activities in the city.

 

"This is organized. They patrol the property with guns visibly, like they're not trying to hide them. There's no repercussion. These are ghosts," said one resident.


The gang has also been seen dealing drugs in the same apartment building, according to this resident. The resident, who moved out of the apartment building on Wednesday afternoon with the assistance of City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky and congressional candidate John Fabbricatore, "I literally had to borrow from everybody I know to get into a new place. And it's every bit of money I had."


The property manager told the law firm that he started his job in January 2024, but that TdA had already been establishing a presence at the apartments before his employment. In November 2023, the report states a consultant for the property management company was "so severely beaten and stomped by gang members that he had to go to the hospital."

"The gang activity at Whispering Pines escalated in 2024," according to the document obtained by CBS News Colorado. In April 2024, a housekeeper called the property manager "informing him that two individuals at the property went into an apartment, came out with large firearms, and were coming to kill him (the property manager)." The individuals were apparently past due on rent.

In June, the report says suspected gang members approached the property manager and offered to help the manager "if he agreed to pay the gang 50% of everything the property management company collected in rent."

The property manager said, "that the two individuals were arrested as they were coming to kill him." The report says the men, who were armed with "large firearms," were gang members.


Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos, Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, Nixon Jose Azuaje Perez, and Dixon Jose Azuaje Perez were arrested in connection with an attempted homicide on July 28.

According to Aurora Police, "We can now confirm that [Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos] is a documented member of Tren de Aragua (TdA). He is the brother of Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirinos, also known as 'Cookie' or 'Galleta."

"Additionally, two others who were arrested on that same day are suspected gang members. Their names are Dixon Azuaje-Perez, age 20, and Nixon Azuaje-Perez, age 19. Both were arrested for tampering with evidence in the July 28 shooting on Nome Street. These two have gang ties and are suspected to be members of TdA," said the Aurora Police Department.


Hells Angels Rumor

Posts claiming that Hells Angels was headed to 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 it and the Mongols in 2020 where a ranking Hells Angel member was killed.

The Aurora Police Department responded to social media claims that members of the Hells Angels in Colorado was headed to the Denver suburb area to combat the gang. The police stated they “do not believe the posts to be credible.”

Some of the posts said the group was responding to the 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 showing bikers at an Insanos Motorcycle Club event in Brazil. The other video is from the recent Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Sources CBSNews, Insight Crime, InSight CrimeFOX31, Fox News9News, AuroraPD, OFAC, USA Today, Infobae, El Diario, Fox News

92 comments:

  1. Big Nuts Big Brains TrutherSeptember 5, 2024 at 2:12 AM

    Empires always collapse from within!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Snitcher Truther get some sleep.

      Delete
    2. Calmate crikoso, mejor fumate otro churro ya vez que Fox News es solo para "entretenimiento", no vayan a llegar los extraterrestres y te levanten 👽

      Delete
    3. 'Snitcher Truther get some sleep'
      Internet banger here,your gonna scare us

      Delete
    4. ''Empires always collapse from within!''
      Its already done propaganda everyday about diversity and culture..In reality we are all strangers to each other .We are being forced to cohabit with strangers and different cultures,yet it is racist to worry about any of it..Every filthy phony here knows it,who is more racist than a mexican?Fuck racism its people

      Delete
    5. Mexicans ? Check them out on here.real nice

      Delete
    6. Yeah Snitcher Truther BB, will be here in the morning, get some sleep dude.

      Delete
  2. Lmao Hells Angels to the rescue?? These lowlife stinky bikers can only beat unarmed persons in groups and robbing them of phones/meth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LMAO de seguro es un metalero centro americano that posted that bit there. Siempre se creia gringo y soñaba con los gringos pansones esos rescatandolo del cartel mexicano. LMAO

      Delete
    2. 7:06

      Gabacho no gringo - solo los gabachos usan "gringo".

      Delete
    3. You clearly didn't research clowm

      Delete
    4. 7:06 AM
      Huh what

      Delete
    5. 1:37 gabachos son franceses. Así le llaman los catalanes y españoles a los franceses.

      Delete
    6. 1:37

      Y eso que tiene que ver aqui? Nada. Los Mexicanos les decimos gabachos a los blancos de EE.UU.

      Delete
    7. 6:12

      Irrevelante. Los Mexicanos no son catalenes ni aleman. Estoy ablando de MEXICANOS y ellos usan "gabacho" para blancos de EE.UU. Me vale madre lo que los de Europa piensen de los frances.

      Delete
  3. @socalj you forgot to mention the jewelry store heist tda pulled in denver Colorado. Some of then idiots didn't wear mask and some were caught in new mexico weeks later.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Apparently aren’t the Hells Angels on their way to them ? Lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. Could have done with out that clown in the video.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean AMLO the clown is in the video?

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    2. ''Could have done with out that clown in the video'' Whos the clown again,you would callin police if they were in your block hard arse..

      Delete
    3. @8:21 you’re the uneducated clown

      Delete
    4. 2:44 I'm from sonora these idiots are are light work tf we are not all key board warriors like you CLOWN

      Delete
    5. 626 Sonorenses are the biggest mandilones and chivos! They get smacked around by their wives and cheated on!

      Delete
  6. We deny and send the Mexicans back and let everyone else in. We should deny and send everyone back. They have money for cell phones and coyote.

    ReplyDelete
  7. There already getting gunned down in Chicago they won’t last especially in penal systems or county jails they will have to get in line with the gangs that are established not to mention the street gangs. Puro cochinooooo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Them Venezuelans gunning mfs down too down 79TH and south shore

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    2. What? I'm in the Chi but who gunning these boyz down? Ion see none of that. They in the yards, the village, Midway courts. All over running game with pimping

      Delete
    3. The Venezuelans can gun down whoever they want but when they hit the system they will fall in line.

      Delete
  8. Pinche bola de mugrosos, deport them all back to their country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kommunist Kamala led them in . Time to take out the trash !

      Delete
  9. Tren de Arragua will take over the Sinaloa Cartel now that Don Mayo Zambada and Don Chapo Guzman are in prison. Don Azul and Don Nacho Coronel are dead.
    Sic#006 is the only hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CALLATE COMPA MEJOR LAMBELE LOS TANATES A TODOS VATO.

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Nino go play with the playdough then nap time.

      Delete
    2. Trump was supposed to but he didn't do shit.

      Delete
    3. ''build the wall''
      Chinese wall shit for miles to keep these underhand crying haters and anyone who sympathizes the fuck away..
      Scrub fuckers

      Delete
    4. Yeah. Build the wall and keep school shooters inside the country itself.

      Delete
    5. 1:35

      Biden started dismantling as soon as he got in? Did you not keep up with the BB reports of the record breaking amounts of illegals we were getting DAILY??? The talks died down since elections right around the corner and “Border Czar” Kamala did nothing about it

      Delete
    6. 11:33 no period, Biden is to old to be dismantling the wall. You should be working for Russia call center, that sends fake news through social media.

      Delete
    7. 12:02

      Such a grammar nazi and use the wrong “too”. 🤣 There’s your period, puto! Nomás porque no pasó a la Kamala, no soy ruso, baboso <- No period

      Delete
    8. 11:33

      Trump never completed a wall and didn't make Mexico pay for it. He didn't do shit.

      Delete
  11. Literallay all of South America hates these people
    venecos

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Central Americans and Mexicans as well

      Delete
  12. Americans don't want the migrants or the rest of you assholes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and America don't want people that don't want to use periods.

      Delete
  13. What about MS13 and M Salvatrucha/
    I thought these guys had everything on lock hahaha.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Venezolanos are the blacks of Latin America.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Venezuelans have the same blood as Mexicans. The reason for these gangs can be put squarely on Maduro. If you want to blame anybody blame the Venezuelan government.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, but that's incorrect. Look at the distance from one country to the other

      Delete
    3. Nope, those are Dominicans

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    4. @ 12:43 nope mexicans are mainly white and native american, venezuelans are white and black and a little bit of native

      Delete
    5. Ita not about thw blood is about their ghetto ratchet entitled criminal attitudes identical to the nappies

      Delete
    6. 157 Mexicans far from white. I am sorry to inform you but your not white. More then likely your a mixturer of Spanish and indigenous blood.

      Delete
    7. @5:27..what do you think Spaniards are,genius!

      Delete
    8. 1121 a mixture of European but by majority indigenous blood

      Delete
    9. 1121 Spanish are also descendants of Arabs

      Delete
    10. 4:12

      Not all Spanish.

      Delete
    11. 838 whatever makes you feel better.

      Delete
  15. I would advise TDA to stay AWay from Ciudad Juarez … back in early 2010s a bunch of MS-13 deportees tried to setup shop in Juarez to run extortion rackets .. rumour has it that some criminal group rounded up the gangbangers and reduced them down to human soap

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ah pero querían frontera porosa…bola de pendejos, voten por Kamala pa que deje entrar más lacra.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

    ReplyDelete
  18. They are only pulling that in Denver and it's surroundings. They won't come to Northern Colorado where half the population is armed and packing most of the time. It is really that bad in Colorado anymore, the politics in Denver has been as bad as AMLO's, " mejor abrazos que balazos " They can't control the crime rate anymore in certain areas but there are good Venezuelans as there are bad ones. But they are going to try and rob the wrong person and it's going to get ugly.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I notice that Venezuela are the most hated in South America lol, now I know why…. Making all of South America look bad smh.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hopefully they don’t stay in Mexico. We already have enough problems to deal with those low life’s.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's why Mexico is being called a 3rd world Country. You get away with murder.

      Delete
  21. Que vayan a Tamaulipas y hagan su desmadre haya para que vean que es bueno jajaj. Pura basura que son esos venezolanos.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I can’t get scared of a gang with that kind of accent. Their accent really doesn’t help their cause lmao.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Venezuela not sending their best people huh. Mándelos alv a todos esos, piensan que están su país. Hdspm

    ReplyDelete
  24. If USA ever goes thru extreme poverty like Venezuela has, half of these Americans would end up just like these venezuelans, bola de good for nothing, inútiles, welfareros that can’t even write or speak English or Spanish correctly!

    ReplyDelete
  25. deport deport deport back to their shit hole third country they love so much they left for America.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 11:56 AM
      Yup,they run away to another country then false claim and whine about how much they love the country they left?Tells you about their values and intentions

      Delete
  26. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.kktv.com/2024/09/05/police-confirm-4-arrested-aurora-homicide-have-likely-venezuelan-gang-ties/%3FoutputType%3Damp&ved=2ahUKEwjE3tOwvqyIAxUmLtAFHTXDKjMQyM8BKAB6BAgJEAE&usg=AOvVaw2AxwLuDz7VD8KOhAxSokV3



    Faltan mas. Desdemona aurora colorado aco

    ReplyDelete
  27. Héctor Guerrero has black electrical tape for eyebrows.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I sure love me some good arepas ! Lately tacos aren't cutting it

    ReplyDelete
  29. Ammatures they will be dealt with they tried the same thing in arizona and got kicked tf out quick

    ReplyDelete
  30. They guy in the video talking sense will be called a racist redneck off all of you arseholes..

    ReplyDelete
  31. We all know what to do,but the farce will continue..People need a serious wake up call

    ReplyDelete
  32. Arrest the fuckin lot of them and fuck their rights.They are runnin around with ARs.And people cry about mexico..This is the U.S this is happening in

    ReplyDelete
  33. Had no idea Mexicans , central and South Americans hated Venezuela no much.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Rumour has it bo bushnell is getting ready to take them all out with a gang of hells angels and then make a documentary about it after

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nah, he will just expose all of their social media handles, home addresses and cars until they turn themselves in.

      Delete
    2. That’s a lie hells angels are not on there way to Colorado

      Delete
    3. 4:39 No period kid, why you creating rumors .....HAMC (Hells Angels Motorcycle Club), is not headed to Colorado. False 💯 percent.

      Delete
  35. Mexicans will still get blame for everything LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No tenemos ni culpa ni responsabilidad en los deplorables centroamericanos

      Delete
    2. 8:49 y los paisas en las carceles Mexicanas tambien son deplorable.
      Pa que sepan.

      Delete
  36. That's one way the hostile countries can fuck with US, send us their worst criminals.

    ReplyDelete
  37. time for us to come together as strong communities and fight these mf's back, wipe this scum out

    ReplyDelete

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