The Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua is setting up shop in the nation’s capital, said an internal memo from the Homeland Security Department.
The Nov. 14 memo to police officials in Virginia says the criminal organization known for trafficking humans and targeting police officers has established a presence in the District of Columbia and parts of central and Northern Virginia. The growth aligns with the region’s rise in migrant populations.
The memo said it is “highly probable” that TDA will exercise greater influence in the region as more Venezuelans take up residence.
“Fully assessing the extent of TDA’s threat and areas of impact presents challenges to law enforcement due to difficulty confirming criminal actors as TDA,” the memo said.
After crossing the porous southern border, Tren de Aragua has set up outposts in metropolitan areas nationwide. The gang isn’t shy about announcing its arrival.
The group overran an El Paso, Texas, hotel to establish a prostitution ring and has organized armed takeovers of apartment buildings in the Denver suburbs.
TDA has bumped shoulders with gangs in Chicago, and suspected gang members have opened fire on police in New York City.
David B. Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told Fox News last week that the gang has human trafficking operations in the state’s four major cities: Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga.
He said TDA members recently recorded a video showing “they shot a cartel member 31 times, broad daylight on video and posted it to social media.” The TBI director said he expects the gang to engage in more retail theft before it branches out into the drug trade.
Police have tied individual gang members to brutal acts of violence, such as the February slaying of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. Jose Ibarra, 26, is accused of strangling the 22-year-old woman and beating her head with a rock after he yanked her off a running trail.
Documented incidents involving TDA members across the national capital region have been tame in comparison, the Homeland Security Department memo said.
Fairfax County Police arrested three suspected TDA members on shoplifting charges in August 2023.
The memo said Rogelio Noriega Solorzano, Williams Lucena Martinez and Kevin Alvarez Alvarado each had tattoos frequently associated with the gang.
A Fairfax County police official said Mr. Lucena Martinez has a court date on Wednesday regarding the shoplifting charge.
Mr. Noriega Solorzano and Mr. Alvarez Alvarado have active bench warrants for skipping court appearances.
The official said he does not know whether the department has issued detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for either of the men. Fairfax County, like most other Virginia suburbs of the District, is a “sanctuary” county that doesn’t comply with federal immigration detainers except for the most severe crimes.
The memo mentioned a northwest Virginia hotel owner who forced Venezuelan migrants into labor in January 2023 as a form of debt bondage. The memo didn’t mention the type of debt.
The federal memo said limited reporting indicates that TDA members in the District will travel to Virginia to carry out thefts, robberies and assaults.
Officials said the gang uses petty theft and fraud schemes to generate income and send money back to operatives in South America.
Tren de Aragua’s footprint in the Washington area likely puts the Venezuelan gang on a collision course with the notoriously violent Salvadoran crime group MS-13.
MS-13’s drug running, extortion rackets and savage killings have picked up since the gang’s activity in the region hit a low point roughly 10 years ago.
A federal jury found MS-13 member Elmer De Jesus Alas Candray guilty of murder last month in connection with five killings from 2018 through 2022.
In a 2019 murder in Reston, Virginia, Alas Candray and other gangsters shot and hacked a victim to death with machetes. Three years later, the killer helped beat a victim to death with a baseball bat in Reston.
Representatives for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and Arlington County Police said they had no documented interactions with TDA gang members.
A spokesperson for the Virginia State Police and the Prince William County Police said they are investigating the matter.
The Washington Times contacted the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and asked whether ICE’s Washington field office had deported any suspected Tren de Aragua members since the beginning of 2023.
A law enforcement source said the department has had no internal communications about the Venezuelan gang but added that MPD is usually way behind on things like this.”
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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