The Gang’s All Here
Tren de Aragua’s Aggressive Expansion

1,677 words

Map showing Tren de Aragua’s presence in the Americas. Source: Wikimedia Commons

I miss the days of gentlemanly criminals running from the constabulary hauling rucksacks full of gold coins with dollar signs emblazoned on the rough canvas. That era is long gone, of course, and will remain a part of cartoon history. Now, in the United States —because the border is a sieve— brutally aggressive, organized, and cunning criminal gangs are making life miserable for citizens.

Crime is getting worse because the United States has imported vibrant business entrepreneurs from failed states like Venezuela. If you want to do some sleuthing on your own to see just how bad it is, wander over to the US Department of State’s website to see if vacationing in the seemingly welcoming tropical climes of Venezuela would be a good idea. According to the Venezuela travel advisory page, the South American country comes with a comprehensive and lengthy health advisory like an advertisement for some volatile weight loss medication. It advises readers and prospective travellers this way: “Do not travel to Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detentions, terrorism, kidnapping, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, [and] poor health infrastructure.” Similarly, Canada’s equivalent government department has this to say: “Avoid all travel to Venezuela due to the significant level of violent crime, the unstable political and economic situations and the decline in basic living conditions, including shortages of medication, gasoline and water.” You get the idea. Taking photographs of Angel Falls will have to wait until your mail-order body armor and hand-me-down Humvee arrive.

Things are not very safe in the land of Mad Max-style hijackings. According to a 2018 article about the lawlessness of Venezuelan roads, trucker Humberto Aguilar said “Every time I say goodbye to my family, I entrust myself to God and the Virgin.” He feared the bands of criminals and desperate people that regularly attacked transport trucks on the country’s highways. Aguilar said he witnessed hundreds of looters ransack a convoy of transports and abscond with milk, rice, and sugar. The raiders employ novel tactics to halt and then waylay vehicles like dropping tree trunks and rocks to block roads, and scattering caltrops called miguelitos —pieces of metal with long spikes— to puncture tires.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has a lengthy briefing on Venezuela —with its pervasive criminal culture— that underscores how dangerous the country is. This entry emphasises how the United States’ porous border has allowed Venezuelan gangs like Tren de Aragua (TdA) to export its brutality to a neighborhood near you:

Members of dangerous cartels and gangs are entering the U.S. by joining the waves of uncontrolled illegal immigration from Venezuela. One cartel of particular concern is Tren de Aragua. Tren de Aragua has taken advantage of the mass outflow of Venezuelans to expand their footprint throughout the Americas. The organization smuggles migrants across borders and also engages in human trafficking, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug trafficking. According to CNN en Español, Customs and Border Protection has detained 38 suspected Tren de Aragua members in FY 2023. At least two are being prosecuted for alleged illegal entry into the United States. In Chicago, a man with a tattoo associated with the gang was arrested for violently attacking his girlfriend at a migrant camp. The Chicago Police Department has warned that Tren de Aragua are establishing a presence in the Windy City and Kyle Williamson, former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in El Paso, Texas, calls the gang “a huge criminal threat.” Williamson has warned that Tren de Aragua’s true impact would be felt once they were organized in the city.

Even though I don’t like Artificial Intelligence (AI) very much as it’s only a matter of time before we’re all toiling ceaselessly in its underground robot foundries, I decided to ask ChatGPT what it thought of the Tren de Aragua criminal syndicate. Here’s what Yevgeny Zamyatin’s fire-breathing integral had to say:

Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization that originated in Venezuela. It started as a prison gang and has since expanded its operations across various countries in Latin America. The group is involved in a range of illicit activities, including drug trafficking, extortion, human trafficking, and other forms of organized crime.

The gang’s name comes from the Aragua state in Venezuela, where it was initially formed. Over time, it has grown in influence and is known for its violent tactics and connections with other criminal groups. Tren de Aragua has been linked to various high-profile criminal activities and has been involved in the exploitation of vulnerable populations, particularly migrants.

The group’s operations extend beyond Venezuela, with reported activities in Colombia, Brazil, and other countries, making it a significant player in the regional crime landscape. Efforts to combat the gang have been challenged by its adaptability and the complex socio-political environment in which it operates.

Well, that’s just great, isn’t it? Let’s hope they move in next door.

The gang has aggressively made its presence known in several major US cities. They made their headquarters in Denver, Colorado because of the ill-advised sanctuary city policies enacted by perfidious municipal, state, and federal idiots. It is a recurring pattern: TdA, which has tendrils everywhere it seems, usurped the proprietors of a clutch of buildings in Aurora, Colorado. To his credit, Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance took ABC’s Martha Raddatz to task for downplaying the violent usurpation and occupation. Moreover, Revolver re-posted this video of four TdA gang members firing weapons in Aurora and other locales. An officer spoke of their litany of crimes: Xavier Chavez, Lennon Melgares, Jayden Velarde, along with an unnamed suspect were charged with attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder along with other offences.

In New York City, hoodlums, some as young as 11-years-old, are terrorizing people in New York’s iconic Times Square. TdA has recruited these youngins who are armed and dangerous. TdA has actively sought out illegal migrant youth to expand their presence in the city. Most of the newly minted guttersnipes are living in subsidized shelters in Manhattan earmarked for migrants. The diminutive cutpurses have named themselves the “Los Diablos de la 42” roughly translated as the “Little Devils of 42nd Street.”

Another violent incident took place in Times Square in January 2024. Immigration officials verified that two illegal migrant criminals who assaulted two NYPD officers were a part of TdA. The beating that was caught on camera allegedly shows Wilson Juarez, 21, and Kelvin Servita-Arocha,19, along with a mob of other presumably TdA affiliated ruffians who punched and kicked the officers before fleeing.

As aforementioned, TdA has a habit of taking over apartment complexes out of the goodness of their fiery Latin hearts. The latest real estate grab by the Venezuelan gang is in San Antonio, Texas. The band of miscreants has reportedly seized up to four properties according to local sources.

In another incident in late September, three members of TdA were arrested for a violent break and enter in Dallas and charged with aggravated robbery. Michael McManus of Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) recounts that

According to the criminal complaint, the female homeowner had just pulled into her garage and was getting out of her car when she was approached by four men, dragged into the house, bound and robbed. The criminals hit the woman over the head with a gun, threatened to cut off her fingers, and stole valuables, including jewelry and a Gucci handbag.

Here are a whole host of other crimes documented by FAIR about TdA:

On June 3, Venezuelan national Bernardo Castro Mata shot NYPD officers Richard Yarusso (in the abdominal area in his bullet-proof vest) and Christopher Abreu (in the leg) while resisting the officers’ attempts to take away his illegal firearm in New York City. According to the New York Post, “Yarusso and Abreu were working on a robbery pattern involving criminals on mopeds in Elmhurst when they spotted Mata driving a black scooter with no plates the wrong way down a street about 1:40 a.m. (…) The suspect ditched his moped (…) and ran off, prompting the officers to chase after him,” after which he resisted arrest and pulled out a gun. Moreover, the illegal alien “was being eyed by the NYPD in two previous violent ‘snatch and grab’ robberies targeting women in Queens on May 21.” Mata, who is 19, entered the country through Eagle Pass, Texas, in July 2023 and was ultimately released on May 6 without any way to track him. CBS News added that “[a]ccording to court documents, Mata, who lived in a migrant shelter (…), told detectives he is a member of a Venezuelan gang and that guns are smuggled into shelters through food delivery packages to avoid metal detectors. He also said it is common practice for Tren de Aragua gang members to shoot at police officers.” (New York Post, June 3, 2024; CBS News, June 27, 2024).

On February 4, an unnamed Venezuelan illegal alien and suspected cartel and Tren de Aragua gang member allegedly shot a transgender prostitute several times in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. According to Breitbart News, “[i]nvestigators had serious evidence that he was the shooter, including video of the car he used after the shooting and shell casings that matched the caliber of bullet used in the attack. Despite the convincing evidence, the Cook County prosecutor’s office decided not to file charges against the suspect.” As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, this occurred because the victim refused to cooperate with the investigation due to fears of gang retribution. (Chicago Sun-Times, March 18, 2024; Breitbart News, March 19, 2024).

Nothing could possibly go wrong after the Democrats threw the doors open to 10 million illegal migrants. Not only do Americans suffer from the effects of open borders and subsequent violent chaos, they pay the bill. According to an article in the New York Post, the migrant crisis has cost the United States of America 150 billion dollars. The next time someone says “But we need immigrants for all sorts of reasons!” feel free to tell them to book their next vacation to Caracas, Venezuela, or better yet, Aurora, Colorado, both cities are really safe and they’ll enjoy the food.