DOJ Indicts 30 Alleged Tren de Aragua Members on Colorado Drug, Murder Charges

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed two federal indictments Tuesday charging 30 people, including suspected leaders of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, with drug-trafficking, firearms and murder-for-hire offenses in Colorado. The gang has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by Washington. Prosecutors said a nine-month undercover investigation that targeted violent crime at an apartment complex in Aurora led to a 39-count indictment against 28 defendants. Agents recovered 69 firearms—some modified for automatic fire—along with quantities of illegal drugs. Five defendants allegedly offered to kill two people for $15,000 and to collect an extra $5,000 by providing the victims’ severed heads as proof, U.S. Attorney for Colorado Peter McNeilly told reporters. Twenty-four suspects are already in U.S. custody, while two purported gang leaders were arrested in Colombia on a provisional U.S. warrant and await extradition. Officials from the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the operation, the largest U.S. action to date against Tren de Aragua, has already reduced emergency calls in the affected community by 75%. They vowed further measures to curb the gang’s activities nationwide.