‘Highly Structured Terrorist Organization’: Trump Admin Lands Major Blow Against Tren De Aragua

The Trump administration charged and arrested numerous members of Tren de Aragua and a splinter group that has allegedly established its own criminal enterprise within the United States.

Federal authorities charged more than two dozen individuals currently or formerly associated with Tren de Aragua (TdA), a designated terrorist organization, for sex trafficking, robbery, racketeering and other heinous crimes throughout the U.S., according to a Monday press release by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Prosecutors charged six people accused of being current TdA members and, in a separate indictment, charged 19 alleged members of Anti-Tren, a splinter faction primarily made up of former TdA associates.

“As alleged, Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang — it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a prepared statement.

“Today’s indictments and arrests span three states and will devastate TdA’s infrastructure as we work to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country,” Bondi continued.

Of the 27 defendants who have been charged, 16 were already in federal criminal, 🛂Immigration or state custody and another five were arrested Sunday night and Monday in operations in New York State and other areas, according to the DOJ.

Sex trafficking loomed large in the indictment, with federal authorities describing an intricate operation in which gang members would allegedly smuggle women — referred to as “multadas” —  from Venezuela to the U.S. to perform sex work in order to pay off their debts. In order to force compliance from multadas, gang members would allegedly threaten to kill them and their families, pistol whip them and perform other acts of assault and go as far as killing them, according to the