Aragua train on the United States – Mexico border: How the Venezuelan criminal gang disputes the trafficking of migrants with dangerous Mexican mafias

The dangerous Venezuelan criminal gang Aragua Train is expanding and gaining power in Mexicoto the point that this mafia is already fighting powerful Mexican cartels, such as the Sinaloa cartel, for migrant trafficking routes on the border with the United States.

According to the Mexican media Milenio, the Aragua Train has joined the gangs that operate a safe house network in US territory that are used for human trafficking, especially in El Paso, Texas.

Milenio interviewed Landon Hutchen spublic relations officer for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the United States, who assured that most of the criminal activity of human smuggling is handled by mafias of Mexico as The Company, The Line and the Sinaloa Cartel but they have been joined by Aragua Train.

“The same criminal organizations that traffic drugs, traffic people. These drug cartels are very dangerous. “A migrant on average pays 10,000, 12,000, 15,000 dollars”Hutchens told Milenio.

The United States Border Patrol reported that In the last 12 months, 278 safe houses were detected in El Pasoan increase of 7% compared to the 260 houses detected the previous year.

The Mexican journalist César Martínez spent a week in The Pass together with the Border Patrol and CBP. He said that the authorities confirmed that the Aragua Train It also runs safe houses for human trafficking.

Safe houses, Milenio explained, are places rented through digital platforms or motel rooms. The mafias can gather up to 200 people in these places to wait for the right conditions that will allow them to continue their path into the interior of the United States. However, in these places they also extort migrants’ relatives to demand that they send them more money.

At the end of August, the Secretary of Public Security of Chihuahua, Gilberto Loya Chavez warned that in that state the presence of members of the Aragua Train.

“On the issue of the Aragua Train, we have detected – thanks to collaboration with the United States – a large number of people who belong to the Aragua Train and have passed through the state of Chihuahua”said Loya Chávez on August 26.

He also maintained that a homicide occurred in the north of the United States in which the person responsible was identified as a member of the Aragua Train that had gone through Ciudad Juarez to cross the border.

Sexual exploitation network

Milenio reported that the Aragua Train would be seeking to control the sexual exploitation in Mexico City. He recalled that at the end of July the band was involved in the feminicide of two young Venezuelan women from Maracay who were found dead and burned in the south of the Mexican capital.

Both had a shot in the head. They were identified by their tattoos and by a bank token with which money transfers are made between the United States and Latin America, explained the newspaper El País.

Weeks after the crime, the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) of Mexico City reported the capture of Osmarys Alexandra19 years old, and Jesus Alberto24, both Venezuelans, as suspected of having participated in the murder of the friends.

Milenio indicated that one of the leaders of the sexual exploitation network in the Mexico City responds to the alias ‘Luisito’. He explained that to prevent the women from escaping or reporting them, the Venezuelan mafia takes their documents and transports them in private vehicles that they use as taxis.

The history of the Aragua Train

Since 2018, the Aragua Train took advantage of the large-scale migration of Venezuelans by South America to evolve from a prison gang to a transnational one, establishing its presence in countries such as Colombia, Peru and Chile, where it is dedicated to women trafficking, drug trafficking, hitmen and migrant trafficking.

But after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, the migratory wave began to flow towards the United States through the Darien Gap. This flow has been taken advantage of by members of the Aragua Train to enter the United States.

The Aragua Train was born from the union of workers who worked in the construction of the section of the Venezuelan Railway in 2005.which traveled through the states of Aragua and Carabobo; hence its name.

He union charged for the assignment of jobs and extorted to contractors in exchange for security. Later, he expanded his criminal activities. When construction was halted in 2011, the union was already functioning as a criminal bandaccording to InSight Crime.

The mega-gang reached its criminal peak in 2013, after Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias ‘Warrior Boy’was recaptured and imprisoned in the prison of Stumpwhere he established alliances with union members.

In StumpGuerrero quickly climbed the prison hierarchy until he became the “take”, the head of the prison.

In jail’Warrior Boy‘He had total control and began to charge a monthly amount to the other prisoners for the construction of gyms, swimming pools, playgrounds, restaurants, nightclubs and other works inside the prison.

Outside Tocorón, the Aragua Train encountered few obstacles to establishing its control and expanding its territory and criminal operations.

‘Warrior Boy’ He recruited criminal gang leaders from the San Vicente neighborhood, located in Maracay, and established another operations center there. One of those gangs, known as the “El Flipper” gang, after the alias of its leader, Kenferson Sevilla Arteaga, took complete control of the neighborhood.

Thanks to its alliance with this group, the Aragua Train managed to legally establish the Fundación Somos El Barrio JKa façade through which the organization would begin to acquire capabilities of social control over the community.

Then, during the government of Chavista Tareck El Aissami in Aragua, a large part of the state police apparatus was dismantled and San Vicente became one of the well-known “peace zones”, territories where the government prohibited the action of the security forces. security. Thanks to this, The Aragua Train consolidated a solid base in the neighborhood.

According to Transparencia Venezuela, the criminal megagang has more than 4,000 members.

In September 2023, ‘Warrior Boy‘escaped from prison Stump before the authorities enter that prison to transfer all the prisoners to other prisons.

This year, the state of Texas designated the Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization and launched a broad operation in order to neutralize it.