The Trump administration has sanctioned the head of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and five key leaders and associates in a move to crack down on the foreign terrorist organization that has infiltrated the United States during the Biden-era border crisis.
On Thursday, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on TDA leader Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, who the department stated has grown the transnational criminal ring from a prison gang involved in extortion and bribery to an “influential” organization that “threatens public safety” throughout the Western Hemisphere.
The organization was deemed a terrorist group by the State Department earlier this year. As it has expanded, it has become involved in drug smuggling, human smuggling and trafficking, extortion, sexual exploitation of women and children, and money laundering.
“Today’s action highlights the critical role of leaders like Niño Guerrero and his lieutenants in Tren de Aragua’s efforts to increase its destabilizing influence throughout the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not allow Tren de Aragua to continue to terrorize our communities and harm innocent Americans. In line with President Trump’s mandate to Make America Safe Again, Treasury remains dedicated to dismantling Tren de Aragua and disrupting the group’s campaign of violence.”
The Treasury previously sanctioned Tren de Aragua as a significant transnational criminal organization on July 11.
Last month, the Treasury sanctioned Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, another top leader of the gang. Thursday’s action focused on Guerrero. The State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero’s arrest and/or conviction.
Tren de Aragua is said to be as serious a threat as the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and has been quietly operating in unsuspected neighborhoods and communities across the country for several years.
VIOLENT GANG TREN DE ARAGUA USED BORDER CHAOS TO INFILTRATE US
The transnational, corporation-sized criminal group took advantage of the U.S. border crisis and was able to push members into the United States to beef up its presence in cities nationwide. Law enforcement and elected officials are gravely concerned about the type of violence they are seeing, particularly after one murder that has been in the spotlight.
Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was murdered in February 2024 while on a jog, and police identified Venezuelan illegal immigrant José Ibarra as her suspected killer. Ibarra was a reported member of the gang, and that revelation put the criminal organization in the spotlight as the case against him and his brother, also a suspected gang member, proceeded in court. Ibarra was convicted of Riley’s murder last November.