Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua linked to violent crime in U.S. but not a designated TCO

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has been connected to incidents of violent crimes around the country this year, has still not been designated a “Transnational Criminal Organization” by the Biden administration, despite requests from lawmakers.

“Tren de Aragua is an invading criminal army from a prison in Venezuela that has spread their brutality and chaos to U.S. cities and small towns. If left unchecked, they will unleash an unprecedented reign of terror, mirroring the devastation it has already inflicted in communities throughout Central and South America, most prominently in Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., wrote with House colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden in March.

“The breadth of Tren de Aragua’s operations encompasses murder, drug and human trafficking, sex crimes, extortion, and kidnapping, among other brutalities,” they added.

Retired general Óscar Naranjo, a former vice president of Colombia and chief of the Colombian National Police, said in an interview with CNN that Tren de Aragua is “the most disruptive criminal organization operating nowadays in Latin America, a true challenge for the region.”

Other gangs formally designated as TCOs include the Latin American gang MS-13. The designation, which was made in 2012, allowed the U.S. government to freeze assets of criminals linked to the gang and take other actions.

“This designation allows us to strike at the financial heart of MS-13 and is a powerful weapon in our fight to dismantle one of the most violent, transnational criminal organizations operating today,” then-ICE Director John Morton said at the time.