Violent El Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang linked to over 100 criminal cases in US: report

US News

By Jennie Taer

Federal authorities have opened more than 100 investigations into crimes allegedly committed by members of the violent Venezuelan El Tren de Aragua gang, according to a report by NBC News.

The transnational criminal organization — whose name means “The Aragua Train” in English, a nod to its roots as a railway worker’s union from that region — have been flooding the US with their members, many of whom have been illegally slipping over the Southern Border posing as asylum seekers.

Those members have infiltarated major cities across the country including New York, Chicago, Miami and Denver, where they engage in money laundering, theft and human trafficking, according to reports.

The shadowy group are hard for authorities to pin down or identify, a fact not helped by Venezuelan authorities refusing to share police data with the US.

Even if members are IDed, their home country also refuses to accept them back.

One of the main identifiers police use are gang tattoos particular to members, including five-pointed crows, AK-47 rifles, trains, stars, gas masks and grenades.

However, many of these tattoos are popular designs throughout South America.

Incidents which have recently been attributed to the gang include an investigation focusing on a 19-year-old migrant charged with shooting two NYPD cops on June 3.

Bernardo Raul Castro Mata allegedly told police he was recruited by the Venezuelan gang’s Big Apple “coordinator” to join a crew of “snatch and grab” moped thieves, law-enforcement sources said Wednesday.

Mata illegally entered the US last July in Texas and allegedly said he was encouraged to get gang tattoos to show his allegiance, sources previously told The Post.

Sources have also told The Post that there’s suspicion that a gang tied to the assault of two cops in Times Square in January could be linked to Tren de Aragua.

Tren de Aragua are also believed to be connected to the brutal murder of a retired Venezuelan police officer, who was lured to his death in Miami by a group of prostitutes in April.

The feds have also been tracking the gang in Chicago, according to the local NBC5 station.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 41 Tren de Aragua members crossing the border between October 2022 and September 2023, according to federal data.

Another case the feds have zeroed in on is an alleged sex trafficking ring based in Louisiana involving members of the gang forcing Venezuelan migrant women into sex work to pay their smuggling debts, according to NBC.

Two of the women said they had been tracked down by three alleged members of the gang after enting the US.

The women were then flown from Texas to Louisiana, where they were taken to an apartment and forced to have sex with four men each day.

The men told the women that if they were to report the situation to authorities, their families back home in Venezuela would be killed.

Other prominent cases involving suspected ties to the gang include Jose Ibarra, alleged murderer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, and his brother Diego.

Both had previously been let go by federal authorities at the southern border.

The number of Venezuelans crossing the southern border has skyrocketed under the Biden administration — and so have the number of criminals.

There were roughly 2,000 encounters of Venezuelans crossing the southern border illegally in the entire financial year 2019 compared to more than 200,000 in the financial year 2023, according to federal data.

A major concern with the rise in crossings is there is inadequate vetting being done. It’s also difficult to gang members if they don’t have the common tattoos.

Robert Almonte, a security consultant and former US marshal in El Paso, recently warned The Post the gang has started telling new members not to get them in order to evade police.

“We lack information-sharing with other countries. Most countries are decades behind us with technology and policing practices, so when we detain these guys, mostly there’s nothing on them except [if they have] terrorism or previous US charges,” a Border Patrol source previously told The Post.

The Biden administration has still been able to remove some Venezuelans to Mexico as part of a deal where the US can expel 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba each month.

Still, more migrants with existing criminal records have attempted to cross the southern border during the Biden administration than under Trump, according to NBC.

Tren de Aragua remain a problem in their home country too and last year, the Venezuelan government sent 11,000 soldiers to take control of a prison the gang had seized in Tocorón, in the country’s interior.