Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua crimes surge across US after leader escape

A sprawling prison in a quaint Venezuelan town served as the birthplace of one of the most notorious gangs in the region; The infamous leader of this gang fled his life behind bars under the watchful eye of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, leading the newly formed criminal gang to wreak havoc on American cities.

Located in a town of the same name, Tocorón once reflected a luxurious living community equipped with swimming pools, a nightclub and even a zoo for some of the country’s most dangerous criminals.

For years, the Aragua prison operated under Maduro’s watchful eye and under the control of its own inmates. Kidnappings, extortions, and countless other violent crimes were planned and orchestrated within Tocorón’s borders. accordingly Associated Press.

Shortly after Maduro won the presidential election in 2013, notorious criminal Héctor “Niño” Guerrero returned to Tocorón to serve time behind bars for the murder of a police officer and several other convictions. Taking advantage of rampant corruption in prison, Guerrero sought to expand his up-and-coming gang, Tren de Aragua, now designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.

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“When a country suffers some kind of economic blow or some kind of economic negative indicator, it can lead to groups coming together – especially in places where there is a group of people with criminal records, such as prisons or jails.” [and] “Violent histories competing to control illegal markets and other things behind bars,” David Pyrooz, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Fox News Digital.

Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, aka “Niño Guerrero”, is the infamous president of Tren de Aragua. (US Department of the Treasury)

Members of the Bolivarian National Police special forces wait in convoy at the Aragua prison checkpoint as the Venezuelan government announced the completion of the first phase of its plan to take back control of the prison system in Tocoron, Venezuela, on September 23, 2023. (REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)

Prisoners were expected to pay weekly dues to leaders; that amounted to $3.5 million annually flowing into the new gang; this money also flowed from crimes committed outside the prison walls.

“What happens in prison affects what happens on the street, and what happens on the street affects what happens in prisons,” Pyrooz said. “So these walls are very permeable between prisons and communities.”

“Government control, or the lack thereof, has been shown to lead to gang activity in the United States, in our prison systems, and around the world. So this is not unusual, nor is there any reason to believe Venezuela will be immune from this.”

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Aragua prison is seen as the Venezuelan government announces it has completed the first phase of its plan to take back control of the prison system in Tocoron, Venezuela, on September 23, 2023. (REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)

Corruption has grown under Maduro, who did not break Tren de Aragua’s grip on Tocorón until a decade later, when 11,000 Venezuelan soldiers stormed the prison to regain control in 2023.

But Maduro’s efforts to restore order in Tocorón were perhaps too late. According to the Venezuelan Observatory on Violence, Tren de Aragua had more than 4,000 members when the troops arrived and had a presence in 11 of the country’s 23 states. While authorities sought to dismantle the culture cultivated in Tocorón, Guerrero, now head of the transnational gang, escaped from prison along with several other members.

“There is no coincidence behind the fact that he is a leader,” Pyrooz told Fox News Digital. “So it speaks volumes that there could be some kind of infighting or corruption that would lead to this kind of escape.”

Following Guerrero’s escape, crimes involving Tren de Aragua members began to skyrocket across the United States; perhaps with one of the epicenters of violence landing in a residential town in Colorado.

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A destroyed gate is seen at the Aragua prison as the Venezuelan government announced on September 23, 2023 that it had completed the first phase of its plan to take back control of the prison system in Tocoron, Venezuela. (REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)

In 2024, the gang seized several apartment buildings in Aurora, making national headlines as violent criminals seized the complexes for ransom.

Surveillance video from The Edge at Lowry apartments sparked national outrage after a group of heavily armed men, believed to be members of Tren de Aragua, were seen wandering the corridors of the building.

Additional video shows one of the company’s representatives being violently attacked after refusing to accept a bribe at the Whispering Pines Complex in 2023. he told FOX 31.

In a post to X, the company explained that the employee encountered the group living in a vacant apartment and was attacked after refusing to accept $500 to ignore the situation. Following the attack, the employee reportedly began receiving online threats that included his home address and his wife’s name, which were later linked to Tren de Aragua by the FBI.

The employee, whose bloody photo was published on the X channel by the management company, told FOX 31, “I think they were trying to kill me. I don’t know how I got out, but I did.”

CBZ Management shared this photo on X, allegedly showing one of its employees refusing to accept bribes from gang members at one of the company’s Aurora complexes. (@Cbzmanagement on X)

In another example, in November 2023, a company’s property manager was assaulted by known Tren de Aragua member Yoendry Vilchez Medina-Jose, according to a obtained police report. by Denver 7.

Additionally, a group of gang members took over a tenant’s apartment while he was on vacation, forcing the tenant to find a new place to live.

A Colorado judge later ordered the apartment complex temporarily closed due to an “immediate threat to public safety,” and city officials assisted approximately 85 families in finding a new place to live where they would not be victimized again.

Surveillance video shows Aurora, Colorado apartment worker allegedly attacked by Tren de Aragua gang

“The gang was specifically targeting its community of Venezuelan immigrants through violence, intimidation, extortion and even kidnapping,” Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain said at the time. “The complex has become a center for drug trafficking, home invasions, shootings and violent attacks.”

Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in New York City in 2025, and authorities claimed that the heavily armed man seen in the video was the Venezuelan national seen kicking in a door at an Aurora apartment complex.

“There are ways to eliminate these problems before the Train reaches the Aragua point,” Pyrooz said. “But that can be really hard to do, especially when you have very ineffective government mechanisms to stop these groups.”

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An excavator destroys infrastructure built by inmates at Aragua prison as the Venezuelan government announces the completion of the first phase of its plan to take back control of the prison system in Tocoron, Venezuela, on September 23, 2023. (REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)

“And this could lead to accusations or anecdotal evidence that the government may have facilitated the migration of Tren de Aragua members to the United States.”

Last year, the Aurora Police Department released doorbell video showing a group of nine suspected Tren de Aragua members terrorizing a Venezuelan apartment tenant; this incident was described as “very reminiscent” of the takeover that authorities took place at a building near the city in 2024.

The video shows the group pointing guns and knocking on the apartment door repeatedly at a building near 6th Avenue and Potomac Avenue in Aurora, Chamberlain said at a news conference.

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“This might sound like deja vu,” Chamberlain said at the time. “We are addressing this issue actively, effectively and promptly.”

Authorities ultimately arrested two suspects in connection with the incident and detained four other suspected criminals.

But the Venezuelan gang’s flow of activity within the Colorado community has since diminished, according to Pyrooz.

“It’s largely calmed down in 2025,” Pyrooz said. “Tren de Aragua’s dynamics in the region have largely calmed down. It seems that some enforcement actions correspond to reducing some of the influence of groups like Tren de Aragua.”

In December, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that two alleged leaders of Tren de Aragua had been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a series of crimes in Colorado.

Brawins Dominique Suarez Villegas and Giovanni Vicente Camira Serrano face multiple charges, including racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) conspiracy; This marks yet another attempt to hold members of the violent street gang accountable within the parameters of the U.S. justice system.

Similarly, the Southern District of New York late last year unsealed an indictment charging Guerrero, who remains at large, with a variety of federal charges stemming from his role as leader of Tren de Aragua.

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However, if he had not escaped from Tocorón during the Maduro regime, his capture would probably not have been necessary.

“If you allow gangs to take control of these institutions, it may have something to do with the state’s abject failure to uphold lockdown conditions,” Pyrooz told Fox News Digital. “[Or] to correctional officers who have effective management to eliminate these conflicts before the groups come to power.”

Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.