# Tren de Aragua

Tren de Aragua (Spanish pronunciation:; English: Aragua Train) is a transnational criminal organization and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization from Venezuela. It is believed to have over 5,000 members. Tren de Aragua is led by Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias "Niño Guerrero [es]"; he was incarcerated in Tocorón prison [es], which functioned as the organization's de facto headquarters. The gang has since expanded throughout Latin America and the United States due to the Venezuelan refugee crisis, with the growth of the gang following the migration of Venezuelans to host nations. Due to the enormity of its crimes, combating the gang has become a priority to many nations where Tren de Aragua has operated. Though Tocorón prison was taken by Venezuelan security forces in 2023, the leadership escaped and the gang's activities are currently ongoing.
On 20 January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating the process to designate various drug cartels and transnational gangs, including Tren de Aragua, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which was officially enacted on 20 February 2025, making such groups officially terrorist organizations.

## Characteristics

Members of Tren de Aragua are primarily Venezuelans. Although some members have tattoos, the organization does not have specific tattoos that signify membership in the manner of the maras in Central America, MS13 or 18th Street. Rather, Tren de Aragua resembles other criminal organizations in South America, such as the Medellin Cartel or Cali Cartel, which do not use tattoos to signify membership, thus preventing easy identification.

## Operations

Tren de Aragua is also the first Venezuelan criminal organization to expand abroad; it has a presence in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. It holds a particularly dominant role in human-trafficking and human smuggling in Latin America. The organization engages in a variety of criminal activities, such as arms trafficking, bribery, drug-trafficking, illegal mining, kidnappings-for-ransom, and money laundering. The gang has alliances with Primeiro Comando da Capital in Brazil.

### Chile

Tren de Aragua's branch in Chile is known as "the Pirates of Aragua". Amidst the Tarapacá migrant crisis in northern Chile, Tren de Aragua engaged in trafficking of women across from the Bolivian border to Santiago. By October 2021 there were reports that Chilean authorities were conducting four different investigations related to the criminal organization. On 24 March 2022 Investigations Police of Chile (PDI) declared to have dismantled the Chilean branch of Tren de Aragua. One of the Tren de Aragua members captured in March 2022 had Interpol arrest warrants for murders in Venezuela and Peru. Six other migrant traffickers of Tren de Aragua were also captured in March 2022 by Chilean police. The leader of Chile's Tren de Aragua branch, Rafael Gámez, was arrested in the U.S. state of Texas in December 2024 on charges of human trafficking. Chile initiated proceedings to extradite Gámez.
On 11 April 2024, Chilean authorities implicated Tren de Aragua in the murder of Ronald Ojeda, a Venezuelan political dissident and opponent to Nicolás Maduro who had been living in exile in Chile. Ronald was kidnapped on 21 February and his body was discovered 10 days later inside a bag which had been cemented over. Chilean authorities accused Venezuela's interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, of ordering Tren de Aragua to carry out the killing and paying the assassins.

### Peru

Due to Tren de Aragua's heavy presence in Lima, there were increased sentiments of xenophobia against Venezuelans. Following clashes between Peruvians and Venezuelan migrants at the Gamarra Market in Lima, the "Los Gallegos" chapter of the Tren de Aragua released a video stating "There will be no peace for Peruvians who support xenophobia. We will begin to kill all the Peruvian motorized people", threatening to kill Peruvian motortaxi drivers. In 2023 alone, at least 183 suspected members were arrested.

### United States

Tren de Aragua began emerging throughout the United States during the early 2020s, which saw a surge of migrants crossing the Mexico-U.S. border, particularly from Venezuela. Telemundo, citing multiple criminal cases against suspected members of the gang, wrote in March 2024 that the group evidently "also has an increasingly widespread presence in the United States." In January 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed reports that the gang was operating in the United States. On 11 July 2024, the US Treasury Department and the White House announced sanctions against the gang and designated it a "transnational criminal organization". The State Department is also offering a $12 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the organization's leaders. In 2024, U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border implemented enhanced interviews of single Venezuelan male migrants in order to screen for Tren de Aragua members. Tren de Aragua members have been linked to crimes throughout the United States, including murders.
Tren de Aragua first appeared in Chicago and its suburbs in October 2023. Chief Garry McCarthy of Willow Springs estimated that hundreds of gang members were present in the city. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in November 2023 that "A Sun-Times analysis found shoplifting and domestic violence arrests, but little proof of the gang's presence among migrants."
In New York City, the gang has been linked since 2022 to shootings, thefts in retail stores, street robberies, forced prostitution, extortion, and drug dealing. Police say that members live or have lived in the city's migrant shelters, and are believed to recruit there.
In Aurora, Colorado, surveillance footage of gunmen entering apartments went viral in 2024, leading the city's mayor, Mike Coffman, to state that the gang had "infiltrated" various apartment buildings in the area. These claims were challenged by the Aurora Police Department, which stated that, "[b]ased on [our] initial investigative work, we believe reports of [Tren de Aragua] influence in Aurora are isolated." Contentions that Aurora was overrun by the gang were highlighted by a number of news outlets. President Donald Trump, as part of his presidential campaign's focus on illegal immigration, maintained that parts of the city were controlled by the gang. To combat the purported gang activity, hundreds of ICE agents participated in raids during the months of January and February 2025. One alleged gang member was arrested.
FBI agents in El Paso, Texas reported that 41 suspected members of the Tren de Aragua were arrested in 2023.
In 2024, a state investigator told KUTV that a number of crimes in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area were linked to Tren de Aragua, including a September 2024 shooting in Herriman. Most of the reported crimes included theft, illegal drug distribution, and sextortion.
The gang was prominently featured in Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. An opinion piece in Americas Quarterly said that Tren de Aragua's reach in the United States was in fact exaggerated, with the gang only having permanent cells outside of Venezuela in Peru and Chile, and even having limited success in setting up operations in Venezuela's neighboring country of Colombia.
On 20 January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating the process to designate various drug cartels and transnational gangs, including Tren de Aragua, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, On 28 January ICE arrested 25 members. On 29 January 2025, eight alleged Tren de Aragua gang members were arrested at an apartment complex in Queens, New York, because they were indicted on charges of gun trafficking, where police seized 34 firearms, two others were wanted outstanding.
In March 2025, 200 detainees alleged by the Trump administration to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang were deported from US to El Salvador despite a court order blocking the deportation.

### Venezuela

In September 2023, 11,000 members of the Venezuelan security forces took the Aragua Penitentiary Center, which served as the gang's headquarters.