The Tren de Aragua (TdA), a criminal organization that originated in a Venezuelan prison, has established itself as a principal transnational criminal actor in the Western Hemisphere. Its rapid expansion, combined with extreme levels of violence, marks a new phase of organized crime in Latin America and poses serious challenges to regional security.
From prison gang to transnational network
What began in the Tocorón prison in Aragua state as a local gang dedicated to kidnapping and extortion evolved in less than a decade into a criminal network with a presence in at least a dozen countries. According to experts and regional think tanks, TdA now dominates the Venezuelan criminal landscape and has projected its influence beyond its borders.
“In a very short time, it has managed to position itself at the level of the main transnational criminal groups in the region,” Douglas Farah, a security and organized crime expert and president of IBI Consultant, told Diálogo. Although it may not have the structural sophistication of organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel or MS-13, its capacity for expansion and brutality make it, according to Farah, “the most disruptive criminal organization operating in Latin America today.”
The United States, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and Trinidad and Tobago, among other countries, have designated the group as a terrorist organization, reflecting the regional urgency of the threat. The TdA maintains a presence across the region, including in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire, and has extended its reach to Guyana and Suriname, often linked to the control of illegal mining in southern Venezuela, nongovernmental organization (NGO) Transparencia Venezuela indicated in a report.
Flexible structure and “franchise” model
The TdA has its origins in the figure of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias Niño Guerrero, who consolidated his leadership in Tocorón in the mid-2000s. Under his control, the prison was transformed into a self-sufficient criminal enclave, with its own illicit economy and internal hierarchy.
The TdA adopted a decentralized and adaptable structure. “It functions like a criminal franchise,” explains Farah. “Local gangs in other countries can use its name, symbols, and methods in exchange for loyalty or financial tribute.”
This “exoskeletal” structure, operating without a single visible leader or central physical base, allows cells to maintain operational autonomy, adapt to diverse contexts, and exploit institutional vacuums in countries with weak state control.
Venezuelan migration: the vector of expansion
The TdA’s expansion is inextricably linked to the Venezuelan migration crisis. More than 7.9 million citizens have left the country since 2018, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“The group has expanded as a direct result of the mass migrations resulting from the institutional collapse in Venezuela,” Carlos Augusto Chacón, director of the Hernán Echavarría Olózaga Institute of Political Science, told Diálogo. “It has taken advantage of the vulnerability of migrants.”
In this context, the TdA has expanded its operations to migrant communities across Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil, specializing in recruitment, extortion, and human trafficking. “Countries such as Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina, previously untouched by large-scale organized crime, now have a presence of these networks. The combination of massive migratory flows, state weakness, and the expansion of illicit economies created a scenario that TdA knew how to take advantage of,” Chacón said.
A visible pattern of terror
The deliberate use of terror is one of the main characteristics of the TdA. According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the group has left a trail of murders, mutilations, and disappearances in several countries in the region.
In Peru, the murder of sex workers attributed to TdA in Lima was interpreted as a message of territorial control over the sex trade, Ángela Villón, president of the Movement of Sex Workers of Peru, told OCCRP.
“TdA is still in a phase of criminal consolidation,” Chacón warned. “It is on a violent quest to control territories, spaces, and illicit supply chains.”
In Brazil, police in Roraima recorded a dozen homicides in 2021 linked to the group, several of them involving dismembered victims. In Colombia, the Attorney General’s Office captured 19 members accused of murder, drug trafficking, and extortion.
“It is using extreme violence to show off, to intimidate society as a whole and use it as a tactic for expansion,” explained Farah.
Crime and politics: the link to the Maduro regime
Various intelligence reports, experts and think tanks have strongly asserted a direct connection between the TdA and the Nicolás Maduro regime.
According to these reports, the group operates and grows stronger thanks to internal instability and the permissiveness of structures linked to power. Chacón emphasized the strategic nature of this relationship. “This is nothing new. Since the Chavista regime, Venezuela has used various criminal organizations as proxies to exercise internal and external control.”
He continued: “It’s a doctrine of asymmetric warfare, in which the use of criminal structures such as TdA is part of the national security strategy.”
The mass escape of inmates from Tocorón prison in September 2023 confirmed the group’s power within the prison system. The regime itself acknowledged that the prison functioned as a “center of criminal operations.”
Farah adds that this relationship is part of a regional power strategy. “The Maduro regime, with support from Russia, China, and Iran, uses criminal networks such as the TdA to erode democratic governance and the rule of law in the region,” he said.
Political persecution and geopolitical expansion
A recent report in Colombian magazine Semana provided new insights into this connection, revealing alleged coordinated acts of violence and intimidation against Venezuelan opposition figures who have taken refuge in Colombia, in which the TdA is said to have been directly involved.
According to the publication, the October 13 assassination attempt against activists Yendri Velásquez and Luis Peche in northern Bogotá was part of a systematic persecution strategy directed from Caracas. According to Semana, the operation involved Maduro’s so-called Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, and was carried out through criminal structures associated with the TdA.
The magazine also collected testimonies from Venezuelan refugees who claim that the group maintains an active presence in Bogotá and other Colombian cities, following the regime’s directives. The allegations point to a campaign of political intimidation against dissidents in exile, carried out through a criminal network already entrenched in the host country.
An evolving regional threat
The TdA’s case reflects the mutation of organized crime in Latin America toward flexible, transnational structures with political objectives.
“Organized crime is no longer just a public security problem. It is a contemporary form of warfare,” warns Chacón. “These structures combine drug trafficking, terrorism, and social control, and have become political weapons within a strategy of regional destabilization.”
The designation of TdA as a terrorist group by several countries marks a turning point in the fight against organized crime. “It allows states to use broader legal and intelligence tools,” Chacón explained. “Where their true nature is not recognized, these organizations operate clandestinely, and communities face levels of violence they do not understand.”
In regions where the state lacks information or institutional capacity, TdA crimes are perceived as common crime, when in fact they are part of a transnational criminal network with political and strategic aims capable of challenging borders, states, and democracies.
“It is no longer just about violence and territorial control, but also a long-term threat to democracies and institutions in the region,” Farah said.
