27 From Tren de Aragua Splinter Group Charged in NYC

More than two dozen members of a splinter faction of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua have been charged with a sweeping array of crimes, including murder, kidnapping, racketeering, and sex trafficking, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday in New York.

The Department of Justice announced that a 38-count superseding indictment was unsealed Friday in the Southern District of New York, charging 27 members of Anti-Tren, a criminal organization almost exclusively composed of former members and associates of Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

The indictment alleges widespread violence and exploitation, including a double murder in the Bronx on April 15, 2024; murder-for-hire plots; kidnapping in aid of racketeering; sex trafficking; and sex-trafficking conspiracy.

Of the 27 defendants named in the superseding indictment, "21 were previously charged in a 12-count indictment, and of the six newly added defendants, five are now in federal custody," prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York condemned the gang's activities, saying in a statement that the defendants "planned and carried out a series of horrific crimes, including gunpoint robberies, murders, and the exploitation of vulnerable young women through sex trafficking."

"Tren de Aragua is in the business of murder, sex trafficking and intimidation, and they brought that business to New York while being unlawfully present in the United States," he added.

Clayton said gang members used brutal tactics and threats of violence against victims and their families, leaving "lasting trauma in their wake."

The indictment stated that Anti-Tren operated throughout New York City — particularly in the Bronx and Queens — and had a presence in New Jersey, Illinois, and Washington state.

Federal authorities said the group's criminal enterprise depended on smuggling Venezuelan women and girls — referred to in court papers as "multadas" — into the U.S. and coercing them into commercial sex work to pay off debts.

Prosecutors allege victims were threatened with violence, beaten, shot, and even killed if they tried to escape or refused to comply with the trafficking network's demands.

Anti-Tren also allegedly engaged in the trafficking of controlled substances, armed robberies, and other violent acts, using threats and violence to expand its territory and enforce internal discipline.

The indictment is part of a multiagency law-enforcement effort under Joint Task Force Vulcan involving Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, and local police.

Clayton said the collaboration reflects a commitment to dismantle gangs that "corrupt our neighborhoods, prey on the vulnerable, and pursue violence as a way of life."

Prosecutors said this case demonstrates the reach and violence of foreign criminal enterprises that have entrenched themselves in U.S. communities, and they pledged to use every tool of the justice system to bring the defendants to account.

"TdA and its faction Anti-Tren grew from a prison gang to a transnational criminal organization to a foreign terrorist organization," Christopher Eason, co-director of Joint Task Force Vulcan, said in a statement.

"The violence and horrific acts as charged here including the double murder, murder for hire, kidnapping, and sex trafficking will be met with the full weight of our justice system," he continued.

"The charges against these TdA associates and Anti-Tren members are directly in line with JTFV's mission: a collaborative, whole of government effort to destroy TdA and its factions," Eason said.

"We are grateful for our partnership with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and our law enforcement partners who worked tirelessly to investigate and bring these important charges."