Mexican authorities have warned that migrant caravans heading for the U.S. are being “extorted” by the notorious Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren De Aragua (TDA).
TDA, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott has designated as a terror group, is smuggling migrants, sex trafficking, drug trafficking and carrying out murder for hire and extortion, according to Border Report, which cited officials in Mexico.
“They developed a co-dependence with organized criminal groups,” Chihuahua Public Safety Secretary Gilberto Loya said, according to the report. “We detected this here when we began to have a large number of migrant kidnappings and extortion—from people who came in the caravans and migrants who arrived by themselves to Juarez.
“The local groups began utilizing them to carry out the extortion. We also began to see them adapt with the local cartels to carry out kidnapping and sex-trafficking.”
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One group, consisting of 2,000 migrants, left Tapachula, a city on Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, on October 20 and is expected to disperse and seek different routes to reach the U.S. after they arrive.
Another migrant caravan, called God Guide Us, consisting of approximately 1,000 people, is reportedly making its way through Mexico toward the U.S. southern border. It departed from Tapachula on October 13 and is heading toward Mexico City.
According to the International Rescue Committee, a third caravan of 700 people also left in October.
TDA, a transnational criminal organization formed in a Venezuelan prison, has been making headlines across the country after a viral video showed armed gang members storming an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
Former President Donald Trump claimed the gang has “overrun” Aurora, while Mayor Mike Coffman said the remarks surrounding the group are exaggerated.
“I’m not dismissing the concerns at all, but whatever happened initially, happened. What I can tell you now is that the gangs are not in control of either complex,” Coffman previously told Newsweek.
U.S. Border Patrol reported substantial apprehensions among TDA gang members in fiscal 2023 (41) and fiscal 2024 (23).
The group focuses on human-trafficking and other abuses targeting vulnerable migrants. The gang is accused of smuggling women and girls for sexual exploitation.
There is increasing concern about TDA, as its members have been linked to a series of high-profile crimes across the United States.
Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris previously told Newsweek that TDA is a “ruthless organization that has no place in the state of Texas.”
“The price we’ve paid for the federal government’s failure to secure the border has been deadly. Among the many victims is 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was raped and killed by illegal immigrants,” Mahaleris said.
“If Jocelyn’s killers are, in fact, Tren de Aragua members, Texas will bring down the full weight of these enhanced criminal penalties on them. Tren de Aragua has [a] target on their back, and the State of Texas is utilizing all available resources to go after them.”
Two men, Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, who were charged with Nungaray’s death in Houston last summer, have ties to the crime syndicate.
In early October, an alleged sex-trafficking ringleader known as La Barbie, who is said to have links to TDA, was arrested in El Paso, according to a leaked Border Patrol memo seen by the New York Post.
Abbott is offering a $5,000 bounty for information that leads to the arrest of members of the notorious group after signing a proclamation designating the gang as a foreign terrorist organization on September 16.
Border security is a highly important issue for voters in November’s election. Both presidential candidates have promised to implement tougher security measures and pledged to curb migration figures.
