MIAMI.- Authorities and specialists in Intelligence in USA express concern about the expansion of the criminal gang Aragua Train, of Venezuela, after confirming the presence of several of its members in other cities in the country.
In Chicago, The police detected the mobilization of members of the dangerous criminal organization since October 2023, who would be operating among the immigrants who recently arrived in that city in the state of Illinois, according to reports released this January 24.
The Police Chief of the suburb of Willow Spring, Garry McCarthy, when confirming the information to national media, reported that the Tren de Aragua faction in that city is operating mainly in the trafficking of Latino people in the United States.
“Multiple agencies have established their presence within the United States,” he indicated.
The Aragua Train, a criminal gang initially made up of pranes and allies from the Tocorón prison, located in the state of Aragua, Venezuela, has more than 5,000 men and since 2014 has operated as a “business” structure dedicated to “profitable” crimes. that generate more than 15 million dollars a year. It has not only penetrated civil organizations, but has also expanded to nine Latin American countries, according to the investigation of journalist Ronna Rísquez.
Signs of presence of the Aragua Train
Just seven days ago, Miami-Dade authorities also gave notice of the presence of suspects from the Aragua Train, after they arrested a man (Yurwin Salazar Maita, 23 years old) for the homicide of a citizen who they intercepted leaving from a hotel, near Doral, in the early hours of January 18, and after killing him, they stole the belongings from his residence.
One of those arrested would have identified himself as a member of the criminal gang, according to the information. An intelligence expert considered “this type of crime rarely seen in Miami” and said that the situation is “worrying.”
These facts are added to the detection of at least 38 members of the Aragua Train, in six other US border sectors, according to reports made by the United States Border Patrol, in November 2023.
Criminal gang, franchise for crime
The Aragua Train, one of the five most dangerous criminal gangs in Latin America, is a model used by the “maras” of Central America and is a criminal structure of expansion and connection, but it has a particular characteristic: it functions as a kind of franchise with which it seeks business and mutual support and a certain autonomy of action with allies, explains sociologist Roberto Briceño-León, expert in urban violence and director of the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.
“It is what makes them more versatile for negotiations and at the same time they come with experience of exercising very strong and rapid violence that helps them impose themselves, as happened in the south but which can generate conflicts with other criminal gangs.”
As they come from the Venezuelan context of ties with police that are different from those in other countries, a conflict is created for them with police forces that makes their mobility difficult but “they have a great capacity to adapt.”
The expansion of the Aragua Train in the US may be favored by the distant – and strained – relations between the US and Venezuela that make the exchange of information difficult to prevent the entry of other members of the Aragua Train, but Briceño-León adds another element.
“The lack of willingness to cooperate can obviously be a problem in stopping the expansion, but the limited level of information that Venezuela can provide is even more so,” says the expert, who warns that although some of the members of the band may join the American labor sector and stay there, others are instead looking for criminal opportunities and organizing. “They operate as a franchise to strengthen themselves.” And there you have to be alert.
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Source: With information from Univision, TelemundoChicago, CrónicaUno
