Texas Governor Gregg Abbott has designated the Venezuelan-born gang Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization in the name of the safety of “all Texans.”
“The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a dangerous and deadly problem facing our state and our nation,” said Governor Abbott.
During the announcement, Abbott stressed that the main objective is “the safety of all Texans” and announced at the same time the launch of a statewide operation, with the support of the Department of Public Safety, focused on deterring and disrupting the criminal operations of the Aragua Train.
“Our goal is to defend Texas from the growing threat of gangs. We will not allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens. They have a target on their backs and we are going after them. Texas is the wrong state to try to do business in,” Abbott stressed.
The Texas governor made the announcement during a press conference in Houston alongside local and regional authorities, almost two months after the U.S. government designated this group as a transnational criminal organization for activities that include human trafficking, gender violence, money laundering and drug trafficking.
With the new designation as a terrorist group, Texas will be able to use the courts to curb the gang’s criminal operations, use civil asset forfeiture to seize its assets and enhance criminal penalties for prosecution.
At the same time, the governor ordered the creation of a special, multidisciplinary team to “aggressively attack the criminal operations of the Aragua Train” that will include highway patrol agents, forest rangers in collaboration with the police and anti-gang centers.
The members of the Aragua Train “are a plague”
Also participating in the press conference were Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw, Texas Border Czar Mike Banks and National Border Patrol Council Vice President Chris Cabrera.
During their interventions, they made clear the level of attention and procedures to attack the Aragua Train, whose members they described as “cockroaches that multiply rapidly.”
“Small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued,” the Department of Public Safety director said.
Similarly, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, Chris Cabrera, warned that this gang is not like the famous Mara Salvatrucha or traditional MS-13 that you can recognize from afar by their tattoos.
“These guys fly under the radar. As a federal agent, we have no other way to investigate these people. If they tell us their name, we can’t check it against the Venezuelan database. This is a plague that is spreading not only in Colorado or New York, but also in Michigan, Florida and Texas. If people don’t wake up and see things as they are, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble in this country,” he said.
The criminal organization is attributed as being responsible for the increase in crime in the Americas. Countries such as Ecuador, Peru and Chile have denounced its presence in their territories, where it has committed crimes such as murders for hire, kidnappings and extortion, among others.
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