Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua linked to human trafficking

By Samantha KammanChristian Post reporter Friday November 15, 2024

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is running human trafficking operations in Tennessee and authorities expect their crimes to worsen.

Members of the Venezuelan criminal gang have been spotted across the United States, including in Colorado and Texas. The transnational criminal organization has its origins in a prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua.

In response to an inquiry from The Christian Post, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said the state agency has joined multiple law enforcement agencies across the country in raising the alarm about Tren de Aragua. The earliest crime TBI has linked the gang to is a 2023 human trafficking case.

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“At this time, intelligence suggests that the gang is still primarily involved in furthering human trafficking in Tennessee, but the known track record of the gang’s involvement in theft and drug crimes elsewhere continues to inform our collective efforts to combat the crimes in Tennessee better understood and identified more consistently. that may be related to TdA,” the spokesperson said.

While tattoos are one of the most reliable ways to identify gang members, the spokesperson told CP that recent intelligence suggests Tren de Aragua may be less reliant on tattoos, making them more difficult to identify.

“Instead, the TBI would remind the general public of the warning signs of human trafficking itself,” the spokesperson added.

TBI’s statement was in response to a Tuesday budget meeting with Republican Gov. Bill Lee. During the meeting, TBI Director David Rausch said the gang is “always present in our country and in Tennessee,” the Nashville-based group. WSMV reported. Rausch added that TBI first became aware of the gang two years ago during a human trafficking investigation.

Members of Tren de Aragua had kidnapped Venezuelan women and trafficked them into the U.S., but the operation two years ago saw TBI capture several gang members while others fled the state, Rausch said.

“What we see now is that they are back. They are back in all our major cities,” he warned. “They are running human trafficking operations. That’s where they start, but now we’ve learned from talking to our colleagues across the country that they have a path to more violence.”

In addition to human trafficking, Rausch says the gang also engages in retail theft, typically using individuals they bring illegally to the U.S. to shoplift.

“The next step they’re taking is drug trafficking,” Rausch continued. “They certainly will, and they have tackled the cartel head-on. They are very violent in their attempts.”

“Recently there was a video they made where they video shot a cartel member 31 times in broad daylight and posted it on social media,” he added. “That’s the type of organization they are.”

The gang became a major talking point during this year’s presidential elections following reports that Tren de Aragua was engaged in criminal activities in the United States. Republicans, including former President-elect Donald Trump, said members of the gang infiltrated the country because of the Biden-Harris administration’s lax immigration policies.

“They allowed criminals, many, many millions of criminals, they allowed terrorists, they allowed common street criminals, they allowed people to come in, drug dealers to come into our country,” Trump said during the September presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. . “They are now in the United States and their countries, like Venezuela, are telling them never to come back or we are going to kill you.”

Tren de Argua gained fame in the US after images of heavily armed men taking over an apartment in Aurora, Colorado went viral online. While police in the area claimed some reports were exaggerated, authorities said announced in September that they were investigating ten suspected gang members for their involvement in a series of crimes.

“TdA has not ‘taken over’ the city. The exaggerated claims fueled by social media and select news organizations are simply not true,” the Aurora Police Department claimed in the announcement. “Once again, TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been working on in various ways for months.”

“To date, APD has now linked ten people to TdA and arrested eight of those people.” Aurora police added. “Two of the eight individuals taken into custody were involved in a shooting in July at one of the specific properties in the city where problems have been encountered with TdA activities. In line with these arrests, we can now also confirm that criminal activity, including TdA issues, had significantly affected these properties.”