Your New Neighbors – Tren de Aragua

Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that originated in Venezuela. Its members took over an entire prison in Venezuela and turned it into their headquarters for years. Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration they are now here in strength, raising hell and terrorizing law-abiding Americans from coast to coast.

In September 2023, the Venezuelan army surrounded Tocorón prison in Aragua state. They were there to take back control of the prison from Tren de Aragua. It is a measure of how monumental that task was that it took 11,000 soldiers with tanks to carry it out.

The leaders of Tren de Aragua fled through a network of tunnels and started looking for new worlds to conquer. They spread into neighboring South American countries. Thanks to Joe and Kamala and their open border policies they stumbled into a much bigger golden opportunity, however. They were afforded the chance to invade the United States and terrorize its citizens.

There are daily news reports now about crimes committed by Venezuelan “migrants” in U.S. cities. These generally present what is happening as random acts by individuals engaged in petty crime. A few bad apples have shown up and are being dealt with—nothing to lose sleep over.

This is fundamentally wrong. Tren de Aragua members have arrived in force. They are disciplined. They are vicious. They are operating under the direction of senior leaders with a clear purpose. No one knows where the senior leaders of the group are based now, but they are very much still in business.

At least 1000 members of Tren de Aragua have infiltrated the country. They are operating coast to coast. They are not afraid of the police. They are, in fact, operating under orders that give them the “green light” to attack and open fire on law enforcement officers.

The gang’s presence in the U.S. has already been tied to numerous crimes, including the shooting of two NYPD officers attempting to arrest one of its members. A federal memo obtained by the New York Post details credible intelligence from Colorado, indicating that Tren de Aragua has sanctioned attacks on law enforcement officers in Denver.

Tren de Aragua members are active in most major U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, Miami, and Denver. They engage in money laundering, gun smuggling, theft, and human trafficking.

The administration recently designated Tren de Aragua a transnational criminal organization and has offered a $12 million reward for the arrest of its leaders. This is far too little far too late. Tren de Aragua has a massive head start on organizing in this country and continues to be able to move new members into this country at will.

The gang has already been the subject of more than 100 criminal investigations by federal authorities. No one has any real idea how many crimes members of the group have committed, and law enforcement cannot possibly keep up with the growth of the group on U.S. soil. We know for sure that the group is rapidly recruiting new “soldiers” here from amongst the legions of Venezuelans Joe and Kamala have allowed in.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) has described Tren de Aragua as “MS-13 on steroids.” Venezuela is also refusing to accept Tren de Aragua members back into the country once they leave, making the U.S. a perfect target.

https://insightcrime.org/venezuela-organized-crime-news/tren-de-aragua/

The Tren de Aragua has had a 'stranglehold' on the Whispering Pines Apartments in Aurora since late 2023, the law firm Perkins Coie claimed in a letter to Aurora officials. The firm found that the gang has engaged in assaults, threats of murder, extortion, and even child prostitution, as reported by CBS News Colorado. Vacant units in the complex have been used to host “parties” where the gang provides “drugs and child prostitution”, according to the apartments' manager, who added that “minors are a good source of money.”

"It's as big of a challenge as we've faced."

NYPD Assistant Chief of Detectives Jason Savino talking about Tren de Aragua

The violence is not abating. It is escalating. Police say that members of the gang have gone from crimes like shoplifting and stealing cell phones and jewelry to all-out shoot-outs in the streets.

Just as it once turned a prison into its headquarters Tren de Aragua is turning migrant shelters in major cities into bases of operation. Weapons are smuggled inside in food boxes because they are not searched or scanned in any way. In court, Queens Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reilly said that Mata had told investigators that members of Tren de Aragua were smuggling firearms into city shelters inside food packages that do not have to go through metal detectors. 

“These are the three main characteristics of the Tren de Aragua’s “modus operandi”. Their adaptability allows them to easily take advantage of new criminal opportunities and gives them an edge over their competitors. They currently control a broad criminal portfolio of more than 20 crimes including drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, migrant smuggling, trafficking of women for sexual exploitation, and kidnapping, among others. They exercise violence and control by, among other things, recording the bloody murders they carry out as a way of sending messages to their adversaries.”

In.Visible Crime Analysis Website

“Tren de Aragua is an invading criminal army from a prison in Venezuela that has spread their brutality and chaos to U.S. cities and small towns. If left unchecked, they will unleash an unprecedented reign of terror, mirroring the devastation it has already inflicted in communities throughout Central and South America, most prominently in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. The breadth of Tren de Aragua’s operations encompasses murder, drug and human trafficking, sex crimes, extortion, and kidnapping, among other brutalities.”

Letter from Republican Senators to the Biden administration.

Meet your new neighbors the functional equivalent of the barbarians who tore down the Roman Empire and plunged Europe into the Dark Ages. You can thank Joe and Kamala. They made it all possible.