Senior border officials are targeting a Venezuelan street gang as a priority after a surge in gang activity in states including Texas and Colorado, with members being tied to a string of crimes across the country.
Officials tell Fox News not only that Tren de Aragua are a growing threat, but also that they are “targeting them as a priority.” It comes after a number of warnings about the bloodthirsty gang’s presence in the U.S.
Fox News Digital reported in July that officials warned that TdA had been given a “green light” to fire on or otherwise attack law enforcement in Denver, Colorado. Border Patrol officials have previously warned about the gang being a threat to communities.
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Fox previously reported that CBP had distributed intelligence bulletins to agents revealing tattoos and identifiers for the gang. TdA is said to specialize in extortion, kidnapping, murder and sex trafficking. Federal authorities have been warning that the gang is trying to establish itself in the U.S., where police are already linking it to organized crime. The FBI has also warned that the gang could team up with MS-13.
The gang recently hit the headlines when footage went viral of gang members carrying guns and entering apartments at a Denver apartment complex. This week, four more individuals were arrested in Aurora in connection with a shooting at an apartment complex in July.
In Texas, the Dallas Police Department tells Fox News that it has seen gang activity in the north Dallas area linked to TdA.
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“Our department is collaborating with other agencies to address possible crimes linked to this and other gangs in our city. We are dedicated to preventing criminal activity in our community and ensuring the safety of our residents,” Dallas PD officer Michael Dennis told Fox.
The gang has also been tied to the shooting of two NYPD officers in June, and it drew additional attention when it emerged that the brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley had ties to the gang.
The rise of the gang has been linked to the three-year crisis at the southern border, during which a massive number of Venezuelans have flooded through the U.S. border and have been released into the country. While numbers of encounters at the border have dropped sharply in recent months, the effects of the crisis are still being felt, and it is likely to be a top issue for voters in November.
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Recently the Treasury designated Tren de Aragua a significant transnational criminal organization and offered financial rewards for the conviction of three of its leaders.
“Tren de Aragua leverages its transnational networks to traffic people, especially migrant women and girls, across borders for sex trafficking and debt bondage,” the Treasury Department said in a statement at the time. “Tren de Aragua members often kill them and publicize their deaths as a threat to others.”
Back in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged that the agency was tracking the gang.
“We’re certainly tracking that particular gang, TdA, as we refer to it. We have Safe Streets violent gang task forces in all 56 of our field offices, which are focused specifically on gangs and other similar violent criminal enterprises,” he told lawmakers.
Fox News’ Michael Lee and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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