The Department of Homeland Security issued an internal memo last week, warning agents that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) has expanded its territory in the U.S. to at least 16 states.
The New York Post reported on the internal memo on Monday, writing that DHS officials warned that TdA has most recently increased its “violent tendencies” in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Montana, and Wyoming. The Venezuelan gang also has a presence in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Around half of the U.S. population is in areas where the gang has made its presence known.
NEW: The vicious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua has expanded its territory to at least 16 US states — an area that includes half of America’s population, per a DHS memo we obtained.
The latest include Wyoming, Montana, Virginia, and DC.https://t.co/8NFxJbzjdo pic.twitter.com/jeX58lwKrh
— Jennie Taer 🎗️ (@JennieSTaer) November 19, 2024
According to the DHS memo, TdA’s foothold in the nation’s capital and surrounding Virginia suburbs coincides with “increases in migrant populations” in that area.
“As the population of Venezuelan nationals continues to increase, the potential for violent TdA migrants is highly probable,” the memo added, according to the Post. The memo said that TdA has focused on D.C. because it’s easy to travel from the nation’s capital to surrounding suburbs, where they commit thefts and assaults.
The Post reported that U.S. Border Patrol sources said TdA members cross the U.S.-Mexico border and are often released into the country under the Biden administration’s policies. TdA members are identified by their tattoos, such as a “five-point crown and a clock and roses.”
The illegal immigrant currently on trial for Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s murder is “an active member” of Tren de Aragua, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources told the Post earlier this year. Riley was killed while she was out for a run near the University of Georgia campus in February. The nursing student’s death sent shockwaves throughout the country as Republicans, including then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, called for mass deportations of criminal illegal immigrants.
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Tren de Aragua made headlines again over the summer when local officials in Aurora, Colorado, warned that members of the gang had taken over an apartment complex in the Denver suburb. In New York City, TdA members have been engaged in sex trafficking and police shootings, the Post reported. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch also said last week that the gang is running sex trafficking rings out of Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.
On Monday, Trump confirmed that he plans to use the military to conduct mass deportations upon taking office.
