Police operation dismantles Aragua Train cell in Chile

Chilean authorities seized weapons from criminals / Photo: EFE

A Chilean civil police operation dismantled a cell of the international criminal organization known as Tren de Aragua that operated in the Los Lagos region, about 1,000 kilometers south of Santiago, and was dedicated to the execution of multiple crimes, authorities reported.

Specifically, detectives from the Puerto Montt Robbery Brigade of the Investigative Police (PDI) managed to arrest 10 people and seize drugs and ammunition of various calibers, as well as four firearms, including an automatic submachine gun.

Following an investigation launched last May, the PDI determined that crimes such as robbery with intimidation, robbery with violence, attempted homicide, drug trafficking, violations of the Weapons Law and threats were committed in the area, all allegedly carried out by the same organized criminal structure.

Victims

The victims, according to police, were mainly traffickers, traders and foreign sex workers, the latter being threatened into paying for places that would allow them to use the territory under the control of the so-called Cartier Brothers, as the arrested group called themselves.

According to local press, those arrested include three Chilean citizens and seven Venezuelans (five of them with irregular immigration status and one of them with a military record in his country of origin).

Santiago / EFE