The governor of TexasRepublican Greg Abbott, declared the Venezuelan criminal gang on Monday Aragua Train (TDA) like a terrorist organization and ordered the start of operations to neutralize it. What does this category imply and how is this criminal organization expanding in the United States? We tell you about it in this article.
During a press conference held in Houstonthe most populated city in TexasAbbott assured that the Aragua Train supposes a “dangerous and deadly” threat in the state.
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It is a Level 1 threatthe governor said. “They are the worst of the worst”he continued.
“Texas will use the courts to stop their activities, will use civil asset forfeiture to take their property (…) and harsher criminal penalties to keep them in jail,” he said. Abbott.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during the third day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
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According to a report by the EFE agency, the governor ordered the creation of a unit within the Department of Public Safety from Texas dedicated to Aragua Train and said that it will have “hundreds” of law enforcement officers.
The governor assured that after declaring the Aragua Train As an international terrorist organization, the agents of Texas They will be able to track their members through a database and a shock force.
Abbott said the Aragua Train controls the trafficking of undocumented immigrants from South America through Mexico and heading toward the United States. He added that the criminals would have the approval of their leaders to Shooting police officers on US soilTelemundo 40 reported.
On August 20th, Police confirmed that the Aragua Train had arrived in Dallas, in the north of Texas.
At Monday’s conference, the press noted Abbott that his announcement coincides with the electoral narrative of the campaign of Donald Trumpwhich has made the immigration one of his main themes to attack the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and the president himself Joe Biden.
Jesus Ramirez, 29, carrying a Venezuelan flag, crosses into the United States from Mexico with hundreds of Venezuelans in Eagle Pass, Texas, on September 23, 2023. (Photo by Paula RAMON / AFP)
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Republican leaders, including Trumphave connected the presence of members of the Aragua Train in the United States with the thousands of Venezuelan migrants who have arrived at the southern border fleeing the deep crisis in their country.
Abbott He responded that the announcement had nothing to do with politics or the presidential campaign.
“Months ago I said that we had started arresting TDA members or suspected members of TDA in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.
“Because of the increased flow, we have had to not only expand our efforts but also do things like declare them a foreign terrorist organization and use enhanced tools,” he added.
Abbott clarified that Venezuelan immigrants should not be automatically assumed to be members of the Tren de Aragua.
The Aragua Train in the United States
In a report from January this year, Britton BoydFBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge of The Stepcity of Texas bordering Mexico, confirmed to CNN that members of the Aragua Train were already on US territory.
While in June, CNN reported that In total there are more than 70 cases in which the Aragua Train was mentioned in police documents or accusations from US prosecutors.
By then, the Border Patrol in Texas had identified 58 of them as part of the gang. The rest appear in complaints made by victims or arrests that point to the possible involvement of the suspects with this organized crime group.
For its part, The Wall Street Journal reported that there are more than 100 open investigations in USA involving “alleged” members of the Aragua Train.
Federal authorities They have confirmed the presence of members of the Aragua Train in Miami, New York, Chicago, Colorado and Atlanta.
For its part, Univision reported that Venezuelan citizen Delson Guárate, former mayor of a city in the state of Aragua and who is seeking asylum in the United States, has denounced the band’s arrival in Georgia.
The US Treasury Department has classified the Aragua Train like a “transnational criminal organization” and has offered a reward of 12 million dollars for the capture of its main leaders: Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias Warrior Child; Yohan José Romero, alias Johan Petrica; and Giovanny San Vicente, alias Giovanny.
Hector Guerrero Flores, known as “Niño Guerrero”, leader of the mega-gang Tren de Aragua.
What happens now that the Aragua Train is a terrorist organization in Texas?
According to Univisionlast year Abbott signed the Senate Bill 1900 what defines transnational drug cartels and criminal organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations in Texas.
That law has allowed Increase penalties for distribution of illegal drugsallows authorities to file lawsuits for public nuisance caused by these organizations and carry out operations in the houses where they are hiding.
Other gangs that have previously received the Tier 1 designation in the state include Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafiatwo notorious gangs that operate from prisons; as well as Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, los Crips, los Bloods y los Latin Kings.
To be designated a Level 1 gang in Texasan organization must be violent, wide-ranging and have a hierarchy, the report said. Dallas News.
“The gang members of Tren de Aragua are like cockroaches”Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Monday.
“They multiply rapidly; small intrusions into communities turn into infestations if we do not aggressively pursue these Venezuelan criminals,” he added.
The Dallas News reported that the terrorist designation makes such criminal groups a priority for law enforcement and directs the Texas Department of Public Safety to conduct targeted operations against them and coordinate its efforts with local law enforcement.
The history of the Aragua Train
Soldiers conduct a raid at the Tocoron Penitentiary Center, Venezuela, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
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He Aragua Train nation from the union of workers who worked on the construction of the section of the Venezuelan Railway in 2005which toured the states of Aragua y Carabobo; hence its name.
The union charged for the assignment of jobs and extorted contractors in exchange for security. It then expanded its criminal activities. When construction stopped in 2011, the syndicate was already operating as a criminal gang, according to InSight Crime.
The mega band reached its criminal peak in 2013, after Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias ‘Warrior Child’, was recaptured and imprisoned in the prison of Stumpwhere he established alliances with union members.
In Tocoron, Guerrero He quickly rose through the prison hierarchy to become the “take”.
In jail’Warrior Child’ He had complete control and began charging a monthly amount to the other prisoners for the construction of gyms, swimming pools, playgrounds, restaurants, discos and other projects within the prison.
Outside of Stumphe Aragua Train encountered few obstacles to establishing control and expanding its territory and criminal operations.
‘Warrior Child’ He recruited leaders of criminal gangs from the San Vicente neighborhood, located in Maracay, and established another center of operations there. One of these gangs, known as the “The Flipper”, the alias of its leader, Kenferson Sevilla Arteagatook complete control of the neighborhood.
Thanks to its alliance with this group, the Aragua Train managed to legally establish the Somos El Barrio JK Foundation, a façade through which the organization would begin to acquire capacities for social control over the community.
Then, during the Chavista government Tareck El Aissami In Aragua, much of the state police apparatus was dismantled and San Vicente was turned into one of the so-called “peace zones”, territories where the government prohibited the actions of the security forces. Thanks to this, the Aragua Train consolidated a solid base in the neighborhood.
Today the Aragua Train and the groups under his command are dedicated to the extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking, contract killing, car theft, migrant trafficking and human trafficking in Venezuela and other countries of America.
According to Transparencia Venezuela, the mega criminal gang has more than 4,000 members.
In September 2023, ‘Niño Guerrero’ escaped from Tocorón prison before the authorities entered that prison to transfer all the prisoners to other prisons.
Currently, in South America it has a presence in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador.
