RICO Charges Filed Against Dozens of Tren de Aragua and Anti-Tren Gang Members

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Two superseding indictments were unsealed charging 27 individuals currently or formerly associated with the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, robbery, and firearms offenses. The first superseding indictment (the “TdA Indictment”) charges six alleged members of TdA. 

The second superseding indictment (the “Anti-Tren Indictment”) charges 19 alleged members of “Anti-Tren,” a splinter faction comprised of former TdA members, along with two additional associates of Anti-Tren. 

Of the 27 defendants, 21 are in federal custody, including 16 who were already in federal criminal, immigration, or state custody and five who were arrested last night and today in operations in New York and other jurisdictions.

“As alleged, Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today’s indictments and arrests span three states and will devastate TdA’s infrastructure as we work to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country.”

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Hundreds of Tren de Argua Gang Members Removed from US to El Salvador Using Alien Enemies Act

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

One of the first actions taken following the foundation of the US State Dept designating several cartels and criminal organizations as foreign terrorists was announced in an Executive Action by US President Donald Trump.

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 Saturday to target the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) just hours after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled the law could not be used to deport five Venezuelans.

Soon after the EO was issued, a federal judge blocked any deportations in order to review the application of the law related to the recently FTO designated gang. However, nearly 250 alleged TdA gang members landed in El Salvador as part of the first removals. It is not known and is being determined right now if the planes had been sent prior to the blocked court order.

UPDATE: The federal judge who imposed a block on the deporations questioned a DOJ lawyer over why the two planes did not turn around when he ordered the administration to do so in court. DOJ officials claim the first order was verbal in court and not a written order which was done an hour later after the planes were well on their way.

FlightAware data that showed two planes carrying the deportees were still in the air by the time of the judge's written order at 7:26 p.m. A third plane took off at 7:37 p.m., after the written order was released, they said.

The deportation of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members has since turned into 126 being TdA gang members and 21 MS-13 gang members and leaders. The remaining 101 Venezuelans being deported for for immigration violations. 

Some of those deported may have been charged with crimes, but not necessarily convicted. And some are believed to have had no gang affiliations whatsoever, just immigration issues.

Francisco Javier Garcia was one of the 101 Venezuelans sent to El Salvador. His family said he does not have a criminal record in Venezuela or the United States.

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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.

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