MIAMI – What began as a criminal gang focused on a penitentiary center in Venezuelatoday it has become an issue of state policy in USA. He Aragua Trainthe dangerous criminal gang managed to reach with its tentacles at least 16 territories of the North American country, according to a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security.
On the country’s southern border, US Border Patrol agents remain on alert looking for possible members of the criminal gang that have managed to cross the land borders through illegal border crossings until reaching North American soil, taking advantage of the flexibility of the immigration policies of the Democratic administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the southern border.
The gang already has a presence in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, details the web portal New York Post
Its members increasingly engage in “lower-level fraud and theft schemes,” sending their stolen funds “back to South America as a means to finance additional criminal enterprises”says the memo cited by the media.
Furthermore, in the central United States, police officers from Denver to Chicago make constant arrests for alleged crimes related to the group, from shoplifting to murder and prostitution. For their part, in New York City, police detectives have spent months interviewing informants—including confessed members of the gang—to identify leaders and gather information on patterns of theft and recruiting efforts, the portal details. website The New York Times in Spanish
“Among the places the gang has entered is New York City, where more than 210,000 immigrants have sought refuge since 2022. The city’s Police Department says the gang has focused primarily on snatching cell phones; retail theft, especially expensive merchandise in department stores; and trafficking in a pink powdered synthetic drug, known as tusi, which is often laced with ketamine, MDMA or fentanyl,” he details. the middle.
The Aragua Train operates in several South American countries, and is linked to extortion, homicides and drug trafficking. According to the Texas government, which recently declared it a terrorist organization, it also participates in migrant trafficking.
In July, the State Department admitted that the activity of this organization had extended to the United States and offered a reward for three of its members who could be in Colombia and Venezuela.
