(The Center Square) – The U.S. Justice Department has for the first time filed racketeering, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, robbery and firearms charges against 27 members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, a designated a foreign terrorist organization.
The charges stem from a multi-agency operation involving the U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with the assistance of local law enforcement, including the New York Police Department.
The charges were announced in two superseding indictments that spanned three states. One charges six alleged TdA members; the second charges 19 “anti-Tren” members and two anti-Tren associates. Of the 27 charged, 21 are in federal custody, including 16 already in federal criminal, immigration or state custody.
They were charged with “committing murders and shootings, forcing young women trafficked from Venezuela into commercial sex work, robbing and extorting small businesses, and selling ‘tusi,’ a pink powdery drug that has become their calling card,” Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said.
“For the first time ever, TdA is being named and charged as the criminal enterprise that it is,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “This isn’t just street crime – it’s organized racketeering, and this gang has shown zero regard for the safety of New Yorkers. As alleged in the indictment, these defendants wreaked havoc in our communities, trafficking women for sexual exploitation, flooding our streets with drugs, and committing violent crimes with illegal guns. Thanks to the dedicated members of the NYPD and the important work of our federal partners, their time is up.”
The indictment alleges that the TdA international operation was orchestrated through Venezuela, Peru, the Bronx and Queens to expand TdA territory. TdA members and associates allegedly committed “murder, assault, robbery, other acts of violence, and threats of violence” including against former TdA members and associates and a TdA splinter organization, Anti-Tren, according to the indictment.
Their operation allegedly involved smuggling young Venezuelan women into the U.S., charging them for their illegal transport to the U.S. and forcing them to pay off what they owe through commercial sex work. TdA members also trafficked controlled substances, including tusi, which contains ketamine, and committed armed robbery, the indictment alleges.
The method of smuggling in this case was similar to those brought in other states. TdA members allegedly smuggled young Venezuelan women to Peru and then into the U.S., threatened to kill them and their families if they didn’t perform sex acts, assaulted them, shot or killed them and kidnapped those who tried to run away, according to the indictment.
The indictment doesn’t state how many victims were rescued.
The indictment against anti-Tren members alleges they operated throughout New York City, the Bronx, Queens and New Jersey. The charges are similar: “murder, assault, other acts of violence, and threats of violence” including against TdA members and associates; human smuggling, sex trafficking, trafficking of controlled substances, including tusi, and armed robbery.
Anti-Tren members were also charged with housing and transporting across state lines Anti-Tren members and associates in order to flee prosecution and for paying bail money for detained members or associates. They also allegedly intimidated, threatened and committed violence against potential witnesses who could testify to their alleged crimes, according to the indictment.
They were also charged with threatening to kill the women they sex trafficked, as well as their families, assaulting them, shooting or killing them, or kidnapping those who tried to run away.
Multiple federal, state and local agencies were involved in the investigation, including in Colorado, that led to the TdA arrests.
The investigation is part of the DOJ’s “Operation Take Back America” initiative to eliminate cartels, transnational criminal organizations and FTOs in the U.S. It was launched after at least more than 14 million illegal border crossers were reported under the Biden administration, including more than one million from Venezuela, and TdA crime expanded nationwide, with crime reported in at least 22 states, The Center Square reported.
