Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization with roots in Venezuela, has rapidly expanded across Latin America. : NPR

Members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) stand guard as inmates aboard a bus are transferred outside the Tocoron prison in Tocoron, Aragua State, Venezuela, on September 20, 2023.

YURI CORTEZ/AFP

hide caption

toggle caption

YURI CORTEZ/AFP

BOGOTA, Colombia — The Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that President Trump is targeting in his latest wave of deportations, formed in a Venezuelan prison but has branched out to become a multinational crime organization that has pulled off brazen attacks in places ranging from New York City to Santiago, Chile.

Tren de Aragua, Spanish for “the train of Aragua” was founded in 2014 in the Tocorón prison, in the central Venezuelan state of Aragua. It may have taken its name from a union of railroad workers building a train connection between Caracas and Aragua.

The gang largely controlled the Tocorón prison, where it ran a zoo, swimming pool, disco, restaurant and bar. From behind bars, its leaders ordered robberies, kidnappings, and murders.

But as Venezuela sank into its worst economic meltdown in history and crime became less lucrative, the Tren de Aragua branched out overseas. It recruited new gang members from among the 8 million Venezuelans who had fled the country’s economic crisis. Initially, it established criminal cells in neighboring Colombia, Peru and Chile, where it smuggled drugs and people and operated extortion rackets and prostitution rings.

The Tren de Aragua’s most notorious alleged crime was the 2024 killing of Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan army officer who conspired against Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader, then fled to Chile. Suspected gang member dressed as Chilean police officers abducted Ojeda from his apartment. Days later, his lifeless body was found stuffed in a suitcase and buried in cement. Two Tren de Aragua members have been arrested in the case.

The Tren de Aragua eventually expanded to the United States, which is home to about 700,000 Venezuelan migrants. Besides a wave of robberies, the Tren de Aragua is suspected in the shooting of two New York Police officers and the killing of a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida.

Gang members have been arrested in Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, Texas and California.

Last year, the Biden administration labelled Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization, and in January, the U.S. government designated the Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.