Violent Venezuelan Prison Gang Infiltrating US, Becoming More Organized and Brazen: ‘MS-13 on Steroids
A violent prison gang known as Tren de Aragua (TDA), originating from Aragua, Venezuela, is infiltrating the United States, according to U.S. officials.
In July, the Treasury Department sanctioned TDA as a transnational criminal organization, stating the gang engages in a range of crimes including human trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering, and illicit drug trafficking. TDA poses a “deadly criminal threat across” the Western Hemisphere.
Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales described TDA as “MS-13 on steroids” in a phone interview with Fox News Digital. He noted that TDA members have been entering the United States for several years. “They’re extremely aggressive. It’s not as if they’re a passive group or they want to quietly go about things,” Gonzales said. “They’re coming from Venezuela, one of the most war-torn countries over the last decade. So, they’re battle-hardened in many ways. And they’ve made this trek from there to here. But they are also becoming … more organized and more brazen.”
In October 2023, Peruvian police captured the alleged leader and 31 other members of a Tren de Aragua faction.
Gonzales explained that TDA members’ organization within the U.S. makes them harder to track and deport, especially since Venezuela is not accepting them back. Only 834 Venezuelans were deported in fiscal 2023, despite over 335,000 encounters with Venezuelan migrants at the border that year.
In an effort to deter border crossings, the Biden administration began returning illegal Venezuelan immigrants to Venezuela in October 2023. However, Venezuela stopped accepting these flights in January after the U.S. reimposed previously lifted economic sanctions.
“They basically released these people and told them, ‘You’re getting a one-way trip to the United States,'” Gonzales said.
In a recent instance, TDA members were linked to a June 24 jewelry heist in Denver, Colorado. Multiple suspects posing as clients suddenly pulled out guns and pistol-whipped two women inside the store, according to FOX 31 Denver.
In July, the Albuquerque Police Department in New Mexico shared a bulletin from the Colorado Information Analysis Center warning that TDA members in Denver had been given a “‘green light’ to fire on or attack law enforcement.”
Laken Riley murder suspect Jose Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, has ties to the gang. The Ibarras, along with a third brother, were living in the U.S. illegally after crossing into the country through Texas and eventually settling in Athens, Georgia.
Images from federal court filings include Diego Ibarra’s alleged fake green card and photos that prosecutors say are evidence of his ties to Tren de Aragua.
“Lots of people are fleeing economic persecution, and they’re looking for an opportunity,” Gonzales said. “But embedded in those people are lots of [criminals] who want to cause you harm. And don’t think for a second that that harm won’t happen to you because of wherever you live, or because you’ve never even met someone from Venezuela before. Doesn’t matter.”
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has a National Gang Unit that collaborates with federal, state, local, and international law enforcement to identify and arrest violent street gang members. The agency also supports gang investigations nationwide and overseas.
“Homeland Security Investigations is committed to investigating, disrupting, and dismantling transnational gangs and prioritizes work to combat emerging threats related to them,” an ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “HSI is aware of recent violent crime and arrests involving individuals allegedly associated with the Tren de Aragua gang and continues to assess emerging trends and assist partner law enforcement agencies.”
The FBI has warned that TDA members could collaborate with the infamous MS-13 as they seek to expand within U.S. borders.
TDA “leverages its transnational networks to traffic people, especially migrant women and girls, across borders for sex trafficking and debt bondage,” the Treasury said in a July press release. “When victims seek to escape this exploitation, Tren de Aragua members often kill them and publicize their deaths as a threat to others.”
Anyone with information related to gang activity can submit anonymous reports to ICE by calling the HSI tip-line at 877-4-HSI-TIP.
