Tren de Aragua: Venezuelan gang raises concerns on El Paso, Juárez border

A fast-spreading gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison has been detected in the El Paso-Juárez borderlands among the continuing arrival of thousands of migrants seeking political asylum.

The vicious Tren de Aragua gang has been described as having "revolutionized crime in Latin America" as it extended into several countries following the exodus of Venezuelans.

Members of the gang have been identified in encounters with migrants passing through the El Paso-Juárez region heading to New York, Chicago and other cities in the United States, said officials with the U.S. Border Patrol, Chihuahua state police and other law enforcement agencies.

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"This gang, I have to say, is not a common gang. It is not a normal gang," Gilberto Loya, public safety secretary for the state of Chihuahua, said at an April 15 news briefing. "It is a gang that we have classified as more dangerous than the Mara Salvatrucha, but differs from the Mara Salvatrucha in that it is much less identifiable."

Unlike other heavily-inked gangsters, many Tren de Aragua members do not have gang tattoos, which makes it more difficult to identify them as gang members. "This gang doesn’t move that way," Loya said.

The El Paso Police Department is aware of the Tren de Aragua gang being identified through migrant encounters, stated a recent police grant application seeking continued state funding for the West Texas Anti-Gang Center.

"We haven't had contact with that gang (in criminal cases), but that's not to say they are not here in El Paso," Officer Adrian Cisneros, a spokesman for the El Paso Police Department, said.

Tren De Aragua is described in the police grant document as the "equivalent to the MS-13 in scope of violence and criminal activity" in reference to the internationally notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang from El Salvador.

The application, which includes a brief overview of gang activity in El Paso, seeks $2.8 million in continued funding from the Texas governor's office for the West Texas Anti-Gang Center, known as TAG. The El Paso-based center opened in 2017 to coordinate and support gang-related investigations across West Texas.

The grant application is dated March 11 and was approved for submittal by the El Paso City Council on April 9.

What is the Tren de Aragua gang?

The Tren de Aragua gang originated in the Tocorón prison in the province of Aragua in Venezuela some 15 years ago. It is reputed to be Venezuela's most powerful crime organization with about 5,000 members.

In recent years, the gang has spread into other nations, first in South America and continuing across international borders, with the migration of Venezuelans fleeing their economically-ravaged country.

'El Niño Guerrero'

The reputed leader of the gang is Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, 40, known as "El Niño Guerrero," meaning "the boy warrior."

Under Guerrero's leadership as the "pran," a term referring to the inmate leader in charge of the prison, Tren de Aragua took over and transformed the Tocorón prison into a gang fiefdom.

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The gang ran its criminal operations from the prison, which featured amenities including a swimming pool, restaurants, a discotheque, a children's playground and even a zoo with pumas, jaguars and ostriches, BBC News Mundo reported.

Last September, a force of 11,000 soldiers and police took back control of the prison, but 400 to 500 prisoners escaped, including Guerrero, stated news reports from South America. The prison reportedly had a capacity of 750 but was housing more than 5,000 inmates.

How does the Tren de Aragua operate?

The Tren de Aragua has established operations in other countries because it has a great ability to adapt and negotiate, Venezuelan investigative journalist and author Ronna Rísquez has said in news interviews.

Rísquez authored the 2023 Spanish-language book "El Tren de Aragua: La banda que revolucionó el crimen organizado en América Latina" (The Tren de Aragua: The gang that revolutionized organized crime in Latin America).

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Tren de Aragua — referred to as "TDA" by U.S. federal agents — does not seek confrontation with other crime groups, but instead forms alliances with local gangs and criminal syndicates to find black market opportunities, whether in human trafficking, prostitution, fraud and drug dealing, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials said.

The gang's primary victims are other migrants. The gang is allegedly involved in the extortion of migrants on the routes to the U.S. and the sexual exploitation of women, mainly Venezuelan women, officials said.

“What is happening with this gang, it is taking advantage of the lack of migration regulation to do its business," Loya said.

It should be noted that studies have found that immigrants in the U.S. have lower crime rates than U.S.-born citizens.

Tren de Aragua tattoos

Many members of the Tren de Aragua don't have gang-related tattoos so it is more difficult to identify them, law enforcement officials said.

Some Tren de Aragua gang members have a tattoos of a silhouette of an AK-47 rifle, which allegedly signifies a soldier for the gang. Some may have tattoos of a crown or images of trains, according to U.S. police bulletins mentioned in news reports.

How many Tren de Aragua gang members are there in El Paso, Juárez?

It is unknown how many Tren de Aragua members there may be in the El Paso-Juárez area. Migrants are generally traveling to other U.S. cities and are just passing through the Borderland.

Diego Ibarra — the brother of Jose Antonio Ibarra, the Venezuelan immigrant who a year ago crossed the border in El Paso and is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley at the University of Georgia — is suspected of being a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

The U.S. Border Patrol did not provide a number of how many Tren de Aragua members have been encountered by its agents in the El Paso region.

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Border Patrol officials said that migrants identified as gang members were either identified through criminal records or they self-admitted to belonging to criminal organizations. Migrants with criminal histories can be processed for deportation and charged with illegal entry.

"We have had people who said they are members of the Tren de Aragua who have crossed from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso and other cities in the United States," Loya said.

Loya said that the information on the Venezuelan gang gathered by Chihuahua state police has come from interviews with migrants that were rescued or detained. Mexican authorities are working to learn if the gang is operating in cities with large migrant populations.

Last month, a fiery letter by Congressional Republicans asked President Joe Biden to declare Tren de Aragua a transnational criminal organization. The letter said the gang was "an invading criminal army" that "will unleash an unprecedented reign of terror" on U.S. communities if left unchecked.

The Republicans who signed the letter included Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district covers West Texas from the eastern part of El Paso County to San Antonio.

What gangs are in El Paso?

The current most active gangs in El Paso are Never Look Back, Moon City Locos, Gangster Disciples, Chuco Tango, Sureños and Barrio Azteca, according to the El Paso Police Department Gang Unit as of December 2023, the TAG grant application stated.

Many local gangs have become involved in human smuggling because of the large migrant flows that have been arriving at the El Paso-Juárez border since 2018, the grant document added.

Migrant trafficking, with its associated crimes of smuggling, stash houses, kidnapping and extortion of migrants, has become as a big a moneymaker for border criminal groups as drugs, Mexican law enforcement officials have said.

Some gangs work in conjunction with the Mexican drug cartels in the region — Sinaloa cartel, La Linea (Juárez cartel), Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and La Nueva Empresa, the grant document stated.

El Paso gangs have also been involved in murder, kidnapping, drug dealing, money laundering, fraud, organized retail thefts, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and prostitution.

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"In addition, El Paso has experienced a significant increase in youth violent crime to include an uptick in drive-by shootings," the grant application noted. The "uptick in drive-by shootings" is not described further.

There have been eight drive-by shootings in the first three months of this year, according to preliminary EPPD statistics. There were 47 such shootings in all of 2023, peaking with six incidents each in June and July.

By comparison, there were 166 drive-by shootings in 1996 during the heights of street gang violence in El Paso, according to police research archives.

What biker gangs are in El Paso?

El Paso is home to "one percenter" biker clubs, what law enforcement term "outlaw motorcycle gangs," including the long-established Bandidos, which have been in the city for more than 50 years.

Citing law enforcement intelligence, the Mongols and Pagans are the most active "outlaw motorcycle gangs" in El Paso with crimes usually related to assaults and weapon-possession cases, the Texas Anti-Gang Center grant application stated.

Law enforcement intelligence reports indicate the Pagan's Motorcycle Club has formed a Southwest chapter in El Paso, the document stated.

Established in 1959, the Pagans were historically based on the East Coast and now have chapters across the country.

The Mongols MC, which originated in Southern California in 1969, has had an El Paso presence for more than five years.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Tren de Aragua: Venezuelan gang raises concerns on Texas border