unsealed indictment<\/a><\/strong> lists 38 charges of racketeering, murder, double murder, murder-for-hire, kidnapping, sex trafficking and other offenses. The majority of the 27 defendants charged, 21, were previously charged in another 12-count indictment. Five of the six newly added defendants are in federal custody; one remains at large.<\/p>\nThose charged, all illegally in the U.S., \u201cplanned and carried out a series of horrific crimes, including gunpoint robberies, murders, and the exploitation of vulnerable young women through sex trafficking,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cTren de Aragua is in the business of murder, sex trafficking and\u00a0intimidation, and they brought that business to New York while being unlawfully present in the United States.\u201d Those charged \u201cexerted ruthless control over sex trafficking victims through intimidation, brutality, and threats of violence against them and their loved ones \u2013 leaving lasting trauma in their wake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anti-Tren is nearly exclusively comprised of former TdA members and associates, the DOJ says. They operate throughout New York City but have a heavy presence in the Bronx and Queens as well as in New Jersey, Illinois and Washington, investigators allege.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To expand their territory, Anti-Tren members and associates commit murder, assault and other acts of violence against their own members and TdA members, the DOJ says.<\/p>\n
Their criminal enterprise depends on smuggling Venezuelan women and girls, \u201cmultadas,\u201d into the U.S. and forcing them into sex trafficking, authorities allege. They\u2019re also trafficking controlled substances, including \u201ctusi,\u201d and committing armed robberies, including of banks, authorities allege.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those charged threatened to kill the multadas and their families if they didn\u2019t engage in forced sex acts for TdA and anti-Tren, the indictment alleges. They also assaulted, shot and killed those who didn\u2019t comply, and tracked down and kidnapped the women and girls who tried to flee, according to the charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
TdA and Anti-Tren human smuggling and trafficking involves finding real estate to use as stash houses where victims are held. Victims are transported across the country using weapons and intimidation tactics, authorities say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anti-Tren members are also helping associates flee prosecution, providing bail for those who are arrested and intimidating and committing violence against potential witnesses, Clayton\u2019s office says.<\/p>\n
The charges describe two defendants shooting to death victims in the Bronx; conspiring to kill others in New York and Florida, shooting anti-Tren members in the leg as a form of gang punishment; committing home invasion robberies at gunpoint in Yonkers and the Bronx; kidnapping and sex trafficking crimes, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigators leading the case are from Homeland Security Investigations New York, Seattle, Chicago, and Portland, and the New York Police Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Multiple other law enforcement groups are involved in the investigation, including the Arapahoe County District Attorney\u2019s Office; Aurora Police Department in Aurora, Colorado; U.S. Marshal\u2019s New York\/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force; U.S. Customs and Border Protection\u2019s National Gang Unit and New York Human Intelligence Division; Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s New York and Chicago Enforcement and Removal Operations; ATF, FBI, U.S. Marshals in Oregon; CBP-New York; New York City Crime Analysis Center at the New York\/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; NYPD Computer Crimes Unit; King County, Washington Sheriff\u2019s Office; and Seattle Police Department.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 An additional 27 members of Venezuelan transnational criminal organizations, Tren de Aragua and its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":593045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,19447,1571,405,403,40552,5226,5225,5228,5227,5292,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-593044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-border","tag-national","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new_york","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116077914020148513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}