The band of Venezuelan origin Tren de Aragua continues to commit crimes in Colombia, and as the country’s insurgent groups do, which use the territory of the sister nation as a hideout, this criminal structure takes refuge in Colombia, where they not only reside, but have even held people in captivity.
On Monday, December 26, and according to the information provided by Freddy Bernal, governor of the Venezuelan state of Táchiraofficials of the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) captured two men at the border whom they accused of being extortionists, since they found one list of businessmen who, apparently, were going to intimidate for money.
The official pointed out, in a post on his Instagram account, that The two people are members of the Venezuelan criminal gang, who were at the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, on the Colombian side.
He added that They intended to go to Venezuela with two bladed weapons, 201 grams of what would be a narcotic and a list of businessmen from Tachira to extort them.
On December 20, Bernal warned of small security disturbances, at the hands of criminal gangs, which he foresees will continue to occur in the first weeks of 2023, when the border between the two countries is fully opened.
The governor assured that, after the announcement made by the head of the regime in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, on December 12 that The Colombian-Venezuelan border will be fully opened as soon as 2023 begins, organized criminal gangs on the Colombian side have mutated their actions.
However, he affirmed that, after the early warning of merchants and businessmen who work in the border area, in the state Táchira also activated the security system to combat this scourge.
This is added to the fact that last week, exactly on Wednesday, December 21, the Colombian authorities rescued four Venezuelan citizens who claimed to have been kidnapped by the Tren de Aragua gang in the municipality of Villa del Rosario, in the east of the department of Norte de Santander.
“The four people held against their will, Three men and a woman, including a minor under 17 years of age, were forced and threatened into a warehouse that had a travel agency as a front.”reported the Cúcuta Police through a statement.
The officers indicated that The victims were part of a group of six citizens of the sister country who arrived on Tuesday in the capital of the North, coming from Chile.
Over there They stayed in a hotel in the center of the city and the next day they traveled to the municipality where they were kidnapped, after they were approached by porters who charged them 50,000 Colombian pesos. for helping them carry their luggage.
Because of this high charge, there was a discussion and the victims were taken to the central part of that population, where they are surprised by a group of people who subdue them. Two of them manage to flee the place and cross the Simón Bolívar bridge.
Those who managed to escape They denounced what happened with the Venezuelan authorities who, in turn, alerted their counterparts in the country, who deployed an operation that allowed the rescue of the kidnapped and the capture of the four presumed members of the Tren de Aragua who were holding them.
The relatives of The hostages received messages via WhatsApp, in which the criminals demanded $100,000 to free them.
“Inclusive an intimidating video was sent where the kidnapped people were threatened with firearms and they forced them to ask them to pay the money for their release”, detailed the uniformed officers.
The kidnappers were found four firearms, one of them with a sound suppressor, bullets and three cell phones.
The Aragua Train, which takes its name from that Venezuelan state, has extended its criminal actions. Initially it was in the border area where they control trails and illegal businesses in the area, but then they appeared in Bogotá where the control of micro-trafficking is disputed with local criminals, which has resulted in vendettas with brutal crimes to instill fear among their enemies.
(With information from EFE)
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