Terrifying new research has laid bare how notorious Venezuelan super gang Tren de Aragua’s criminal tentacles have spread across America.
Members of the violent migrant gang TdA have crept into the US hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration.
Arrest data shared with DailyMail.com has now revealed that the tattooed gangsters are operating in even more US cities than originally feared – with San Antonio, Texas, the latest hub of activity.
Dubbed the ‘epitome of evil’ and ‘MS-13 on steroids’, police investigations showed that the mob is behind a spiraling crime wave across the US, with members accused of murders, violent assaults on cops and sex trafficking women.
‘MS-13, they were never organized; Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization from the bottom to the top,’ Colorado’s former ICE director John Fabbricatore told DailyMail.com.
‘These guys right here [in the US] – they’re sending money back to leaders in Venezuela. They’re set up shop like a corporation – it is the like the mafia. What it took MS-13 to do in like a ten-year period, Tren de Aragua has been able to do in less than a year,’ he added.
El Paso, Texas
Texas’ largest city to straddle the US-Mexico border has been called the epicenter for TdA activity by state law enforcement officials.
As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, El Paso’s Mexican sister city, Juarez, is the gang’s new headquarters.
From its base on America’s doorstep, gang members move back and forth between the US and Mexico, federal sources tell DailyMail.com.
‘That’s why El Paso is kind of the center of gravity. El Paso…is really ground zero,’ DPS Director Steve McCraw revealed at a September 16 news conference during which Lone Star State officials declared war on the South American syndicate.
‘Because (TdA) continues to support the Juarez-related gangs involved in the smuggling of people across the border, and they combat with us. We deal with them daily in that regard,’ he added.
Texas’ sixth largest city, the busiest border crossing for most of 2022 and 2023, has also been used as the entry point for many TdA members.
In March, a rare riot on the border was orchestrated by TdA, in which a migrant mob overwhelmed Texas National Guard members, kicking and overpowering armed soldiers at a border crossing in El Paso, the governor of Texas said.
It is unclear how many TdA members have been stopped in West Texas specifically, but the US Border Patrol has prevented 64 confirmed gangsters from entering the country since March 2023.
However, other federal agencies continue to take TdA members off the streets – such as the October 11 arrest of a Venezuelan man wanted for murder by Homeland Security Investigations.
While many migrants, including TdA, simply use El Paso as entry point and leave, others have stayed and even helped take control of the Gateway Hotel – a low budget place many of its guests use as a place to live.
Officials in El Paso shut down the motel in downtown after they said it became a crime den controlled by Venezuelan clan, with police responding to the property nearly 700 times in the last two years.
Scenes of drug use, violence and sexual activity within view of children occurred on a regular basis, according to a lawsuit by the county attorney.
While some of the crimes dated back two years, the lawsuit alleged the situation had deteriorated following the ‘introduction of the Tren de Aragua organization into the hotel.’
Estefania Primera, 37, was recently arrested on charges of human trafficking after being accused of drugging another migrant woman who lived at the hotel and forcing her into sex, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety criminal affidavit obtained by DailyMail.com.
The victim allegedly turned down Primera when she was approached about earning money for having sex. But Primera is then accused of forcing a fentanyl-laced pill down the victim’s throat to knock her out. The victim allegedly then woke up naked on multiple occasions with injuries, legal documents stated.
Known as ‘La Barbie,’ Primera has posted TikTok videos showing her strolling the streets of downtown El Paso near the hotel while scantily dressed.
She appeared to make no bones about her affiliation with the criminal organization on social media, calling herself an ‘hija de Dios’ or ‘child of God – a phrase TdA often uses to refer to themselves. They will also frequently tattoo the initials ‘H’ and ‘J’ on their bodies, sometimes accompanied by a crown.
