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An expert in international criminal group Tren d’Aragua (TdA) warns that if the policies of sanctuary cities and states are allowed to continue, the US will soon face a list of targeted killings across the country.
“The next step is targeted killings,” said José Gustavo Arocha, a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan army. “This is what has happened in Venezuela, what is happening in Latin America and this is what will happen here in the US”
Tren de Aragua, which means “Train from Aragua”, is a massive criminal and terrorist organization that originated a decade ago in a Venezuelan prison. In addition to Venezuela, the group already has a significant presence in South American countries such as Colombia, Peru and Chile and is present in 30 major cities in the US.
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This compilation shows a presumed member of the Tren de Aragua and the southern border, (Fox News/Border Patrol)
According to Arocha, who fled the country after being imprisoned by Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro for eight months, TdA is a “state-sponsored Maduro regime organization” formed and trained by the Venezuelan government to sow chaos, violence and discord throughout the Western Hemisphere.
“Now is the right time to take action,” he said. “If you let them grow, they’re going to be more embedded in communities, it’s going to be harder to take any action against them, and it’s going to be painful for American society.”
He said that the latest moves a defund the police and consecrate sanctuary city and sanctuary state policies to the law only emboldens and allows TdA to commit their crimes with impunity.
If policies like this are allowed to continue, he said, TdA “will be all over America” as a “disease.”
Suspected members of the Tren de Aragua gang have taken over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, charging rent in exchange for “protection.” (Edward Romero)
“When I heard last year about the ‘defund the police’ (movement), I said … ‘something is going to happen here because it’s the same playbook,'” he explained. “Because if you don’t have a rule of law, you don’t have police, it’s like a special ground for them to establish this kind of organization and then they control society because there is no police, there is no rule of law. They will do what they want.”
Who will be in the spotlight of Tren de Aragua? Arocha said TdA’s main targets will be law enforcement officials, such as police officers, police chiefs and sheriffs, as well as any elected officials who try to crack down on them.
In addition to political leaders and law enforcement, Arocha said TdA is also likely to sign up enemies and refugees of the Maduro regime.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro holds a press conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed re-election. Maduro banned Venezuela’s social network X for 10 days after accusing it of being used by his opponents to create unrest after the election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, file)
According to Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, the TdA killings in the US have already begun.
He pointed to the case of TdA member Yurwin Salazar, who he said beat, tortured and killed a former Venezuelan police officer named José Luis Sánchez Valera in Miami in November 2023. In addition to the murder, Salazar also stole the savings of the life of the former policeman.
Agreeing with Arocha, Vaughan said sanctuary policies are particularly harmful to efforts to combat ToD.
“Sanctuary policies have to go,” he said. “It’s critical that these local law enforcement agencies can share information with ICE and vice versa.”
June 2, 2022: ICE agents conduct an enforcement operation inside the US. ((Immigration and Customs Control))
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“It’s no coincidence that many of these TDA members are in sanctuary jurisdictions like Chicago, Colorado and New York. This is no coincidence. They know they can hide behind their sanctuary policies and this is one of the reasons why they choose these communities so that they know that the local authorities will not hand them over to immigration officers for deportation,” he explained.
While some individual states, such as Texas, have taken significant steps to eliminate ToAhe said that ultimately the federal government will have to lead the effort and bring in all aspects of government to dismantle the group.
“It’s too big a problem to solve locally,” he said. “And one of the most important elements of this campaign to eliminate TdA must be the creation of more effective partnerships with local law enforcement agencies, particularly in areas where TdA has been operating, some of which they are sanctuary jurisdictions. Therefore, this artificial obstruction between local law enforcement agencies and ICE that has been imposed for political reasons must end.”
