Venezuelan gang possibly linked to execution-style killings in Connecticut

A housekeeper at the hotel, the Super 8 on the city’s west side, found Samaniego about 12 hours after seeing two people leaving the hotel with two children in tow, according to court documents.

The pair, Moises Alejadro Candollo-Urbaneja, 22, and Gregory Marlyn Galindez-Trias, 24, were arrested a few days later in a town outside Albany, NY. According to their arrest warrant affidavits, the couple was in possession of a blood-stained note. with Samaniego’s credit card details. Police allege the pair also made off with Samaniego’s car, which investigators say ended up in Detroit, Michigan.

“There is certainly a strong suspicion at this point that this defendant participated in what this court would describe as an execution,” Judge Kevin Randolph said this week during Candollo-Urbaneja’s arraignment in Superior Court in Stamford.

Candollo-Urbaneja and Galindez-Trias are not facing murder-related charges, and police have not said whether they were involved in the man’s death or how they knew him.

Before being extradited to Connecticut, the couple was charged in New York State following their arrest. During her hearing in New York, Galindez-Trias expressed her concerns about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Galindez-Trias said through a Spanish court translator that she was afraid of what the gang might do because she had been arrested.

Stamford police have not said whether the gang was connected to the hotel killing. But Galindez-Trias’ comments in court have raised concerns among some in Connecticut. In a statement, Republicans characterized the group as “one of the most brutal and inhumane terrorist groups.”

What is Tren de Aragua?

Federal authorities have called the gang a “significant transnational criminal organization.” The group started as a prison gang in Tocorón Prison in Aragua, Venezuela, a coastal state in the north of the country, west of the capital Caracas.

“Over the past six years, Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero has expanded the group’s criminal network throughout South America and recently expanded north into Central America and the United States,” the U.S. Department of State and the United States said. Ministry of Justice in a press release. July.

New York police said they have seen more crimes, including sex trafficking, drugs and robberies, linked to the gang. Most notably, the shooting of two NYPD officers in June was traced back to the gang, NBC reported.

“They’ve been moving through Central America and now they’ve made their way into the United States,” said Ken Gray, a retired FBI special agent and a leading lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven. The group was founded in 2009, he said, but only became a problem in the U.S. in the past two years.

The group attracted national attention earlier this year when a video of armed men in an Aurora, Colorado, apartment led to claims that Tren de Aragua had taken over the complex. The claim was picked up by former President Donald Trump, who said in a Fox News town hall that Venezuelans are “taking over the whole city,” The Associated Press reported.

In an August 28 statement, Aurora police said they were “aware that components of TdA are active in Aurora” but that based on their investigation they believed reports of the group’s influence were “isolated” . Aurora police later announced several arrests of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members.

“They went with migrants as they moved through Central America,” Gray said. “Wherever they enter, they establish their dominance as a gang.” He said the group is involved in everything from sex and human trafficking to smuggling, extortion and drug trafficking.

“They are an all-resources type gang in the sense that they are into pretty much everything,” Gray said.

Colombian and US authorities are convinced that Guerrero, whose real name is Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero, and Giovanny San Vicente, another leader, are both in Colombia. Johan Petrica, co-founder of the group identified by authorities, is believed to be in Venezuela.

US officials are offering several million dollars in rewards for information leading to the arrests of the group’s leaders.

‘Emerging problem’ in the US

A 2023 U.S. State Department human trafficking report described the group as “Venezuela’s most powerful criminal gang.” Together with another organization, the National Liberation Army, they operate sex trafficking networks in the border town of Villa del Rosario in the Norte de Santander department, the report said.

The groups exploit migrants and internally displaced Colombians through sex trafficking, subjecting victims to “debt slavery,” the report said. This practice refers to the imposition of a high price that trafficking victims or their relatives must repay in exchange for work or some other service.

“According to sources, members of El Tren de Aragua gained the trust of their victims by harboring them” in Colombia, the report said. The gang supplies its victims with food and gets them into debt on a daily basis and, “if they cannot pay,” exploits them into sex work, the report said. The gang also allegedly “marked women and girls behind their ears to prove their ownership,” the State Department report said.

The group is believed to have transported human trafficking victims to other countries in Latin America, including Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.

Gray said that because the group deals with migrants, and sometimes hides within migrant populations, they also “interact” with cartels.

“This is an emerging problem here in the United States,” Gray said.

“They follow the Venezuelan community and attack the Venezuelan community,” he added. “That is, they are the victims of their crimes.”

Galindez-Trias and Candollo-Urbaneja, both from Venezuela, have so far only been charged with first-degree theft, conspiracy to commit first-degree theft, third-degree identity theft, conspiracy to commit identity theft and criminal liability for acts of another. .

The couple was arrested in Rensselaer, N.Y., with two children, both of whom were turned over to the county’s Child Protective Services, officials said. One of the children is a U.S. citizen, while the other child is from Venezuela, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was notified of the arrests, Rensselaer Police Chief Warren Famiglietti said. ICE posted a notice to detain the couple, the chief said.

Candollo-Urbaneja will appear in state Superior Court in Stamford on December 17, while Galindez-Trias will appear on December 19. Their cases have been transferred to the Part A docket, where the district’s most serious cases are heard.

Includes previous reporting by Albany Times Union reporter Kenneth C. Crowe II and Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Pat Tomlinson.

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