Gang sanctioned in the United States

MIAMI, Florida (AP) — The U.S. government has sanctioned the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, considering it a transnational criminal organization, and offered a $12 million reward for the arrest of its leaders.

Washington accuses the former prison gang of spreading across Latin America with criminal activity that includes kidnapping, extortion and human trafficking.

The Tren de Aragua gang joins the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and the Italian Camorra on a list of transnational organizations that are prohibited from doing business in the United States.

“The Aragua Train represents a deadly criminal threat throughout the region,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement, adding that it frequently preys on vulnerable populations, such as migrant women and girls, for sex trafficking.

“When victims seek to escape exploitation, members of the Tren de Aragua often kill them and publicize their deaths as a threat to others,” the statement added.

Hours later, Venezuelan Interior Minister Admiral Remigio Ceballos announced that a brother of the leader of the Aragua Train, Hector Guerrero, alias “El Niño Guerrero,” had arrived in the country on Thursday following being extradited by Spain.

Through his account on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, Ceballos indicated that Gerso Guerrero, “brother of the terrorist Héctor Guerrero, of the extinct” Tren de Aragua is wanted by the Venezuelan justice system following “committing various crimes once morest the people.”

The group is led by Hector Guerrero, who was jailed years ago for killing a police officer, according to InSight Crime. Guerrero, better known by his alias “El Niño,” escaped and was recaptured in 2013, returning to the Aragua prison where the criminal gang was then based. His whereregardings are unknown, but the United States offered up to $12 million for his arrest and that of other gang leaders. Guerrero and Giovanny San Vicente, another target of the reward, are now believed to be living in Colombia.

Aragua Train Crime

The Venezuelan gang has its origins in the country’s prisons, and has now been expanding.

Hits other countries

Authorities in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador — all of which have large immigrant populations — have accused the group of a series of violent crimes in the region.

Violence on the rise

Initially, the gang was dedicated to exploiting Venezuelan immigrants through smuggling, trafficking and loan sharking, but following settling abroad it has joined criminal cells dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion and murder.

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