Crime
Here’s How A Venezuelan Gang Was Able To Infiltrate The US And Wreak Havoc In Major Cities
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
A notorious Venezuelan gang is extending its tentacles into the U.S. on the back of the Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis, and experts say that immigration authorities have no way of identifying the criminal group’s members before they hit American soil.
The gang, known as Tren de Aragua, has made headlines in recent weeks with its criminal activities in multiple states, according to multiple reports. Yet, border authorities have virtually zero tools to detect Venezuelan migrants’ affiliations with the gang, as the U.S.’ diplomatic relationship with the beleaguered country is effectively on ice, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“We have next to no vetting for the Venezuelans who are entering the country, because we have no relationship with the government of Venezuela and that’s true of other migrant nationalities,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the DCNF. “We have no way of knowing whether they were in prison in Venezuela. We have no idea if they’ve been living in a third-world country for years before they tried to come to the United States. We’re essentially letting them in on their word.”
A hotel in El Paso, Texas, was shut down on Sept. 9 following an investigation into Tren de Aragua and other gangs’ use of the complex where alleged incidents of drug use and prostitution occurred, according to the El Paso Times. Additionally, the Dallas Police Department confirmed to the DCNF that there is an ongoing investigation into the gang’s activities in the area.
“We’re really not seeing Tren de Aragua operate in McAllen or Del Rio, or anything else like that,” Ammon Blair, former Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent and senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the DCNF. “But they are operating in El Paso, because it’s a major city … there’s a large diaspora of Venezuelans there.”
In Aurora, Colorado, 10 Tren de Aragua members were identified by police on Sept. 11 as part of an investigation into a string of alleged criminal incidents at apartment complexes in the city, according to FOX 31. The alleged crimes include felony menacing, assault, motor vehicle theft and numerous shootings.
The property management company overseeing the complexes said the gang had effectively “taken over” the buildings, according to The Denver Post.
Tren de Aragua’s nefarious presence has even managed to draw the gaze of the Biden Treasury Department, which declared the gang a transnational criminal organization and announced sanctions in July, citing its involvement in human trafficking, drug trafficking and money laundering. Tren de Aragua started as a prison gang in the Venezuelan state of Aragua in 2013, taking over the Torocon prison and making it their base of operations, growing to around 5,000 members in 2023, according to Insight Crime.
Unlike other gangs, Tren de Aragua doesn’t have a defined set of tattoos that would make it easy for law enforcement to identify members, according to the El Paso Times. The gang’s main target is Venezuelan migrants, who they extort, smuggle and sex traffic to other countries, including the U.S., according to Insight Crime.
In order for CBP to get criminal records from Venezuelans, they would have to use Interpol data, as the U.S. doesn’t have a memorandum of agreement with Venezuela to exchange criminal records, Blair told the DCNF. Moreover, CBP often has to release the detainee before they can obtain criminal records from Interpol.
“Once Biden came into office and offered catch and release policies, temporary protected status, you name it, the Venezuelans started fleeing to the U.S. from all the other countries as well,” Blair told the DCNF. “So when we receive a lot of Venezuelans at the border, we’ll see that many Venezuelans have multiple identification cards from multiple countries, and so it’s very difficult to ascertain who they are.”
From fiscal year 2021 to 2023, CBP saw a 421% increase in Venezuelans encountered at the southern border, according to CBP data.
CBP told the DCNF that the agency has enhanced measures to screen for gangs, and any person deemed a threat is referred for prosecution or investigation as required. It also cited the Biden administration’s initiatives to curtail illegal immigration from the southern border, saying that the majority of southern border encounters in the last three fiscal years have resulted in a removal, return or expulsion.
“They’re now going to be in every diaspora of Venezuelans or Venezuelan communities inside the United States,” Blair added. “And now that we’ve imported over half a million Venezuelans since Biden’s been in office, they’re going to be in every one of those communities.”
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday he would designate Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization and bring the “full weight of the government” on the gang, according to The Texas Tribune. The gang has been active in the state since 2021, and more than 3,000 illegal immigrants from Venezuela have been arrested since then, according to Abbott.
“When it comes to migration from South America and Venezuela, I think that’s somewhere where they have a comparative advantage that they’ve taken advantage of,” Zack Smith, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation told the DCNF. “And then I think also, in that same way, drug trafficking seems to be something that they’re able to tap into as well.”
In 2023, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) partnered with Peru to create a “Transnational Crime Investigation Unit” to combat Tren de Aragua, according to Dialogo Americas. Peru is one of the many South American countries involved in the gang’s network for trafficking people and drugs.
“We’re not heavily scrutinizing anyone coming in,” Blair told the DCNF. “We’re not detaining them. We’re using alternatives to detention, so no one’s really being vetted.”
A U.S. Department of State spokesperson told the DCNF that the agency is working to contain the threat from the gang nationwide, citing efforts from the Biden administration to curtail illegal border crossings. The agency also said they partner with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to disrupt the gang’s activity abroad and have improved their vetting tools.
The El Paso Police Department did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
Featured Image: Mani Albrecht U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs Visual Communications Division
From LifeSiteNews
Andrew Bridgen says UK security agencies ignored detailed information about child trafficking, including names of people involved and where the children were being taken.
A former UK Member of Parliament says the top security agencies of Britain, including the police and MI5, are refusing to act on detailed information they’ve been given about child trafficking into the country.
Andrew Bridgen, who served as a popular Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire from 2010 until 2024, told Infowars founder Alex Jones in a Friday interview how he had raised concerns while in Parliament about “a number of individuals” who were evidently pedophiles.
“It was always passed to the police, to the National Crime Agency, and it involves senior politicians, very senior police officers, and nothing was ever done about it,” Bridgen told Jones.
He had explained that early in his career he had seen London police quash an investigation into child prostitution — and so this appeared to be a repeating pattern of cover-up of child sex crimes.
A former policeman named Jon Wedger had discovered that “children were being taken from children’s homes in the UK and prostituted on the weekend,” and were returning “under the influence of drugs and often with terrible venereal diseases, and the people at the homes were doing nothing about it.”
Upon further investigation, Wedger “wrote a report he sent to his superiors pointing out that child prostitution in London had not been investigated for decades.” However, instead of attempting to protect the children and stop the abuse, the police “threatened” Wedger, told him to retract the report, and fired him from the police force “on false pretenses,” according to Bridgen.
Later, Bridgen met a man who conducted a two-year investigation into sex abuse by pedophile and deceased Prime Minister Edward Heath. The police concluded that, were Heath alive, “he would have been arrested and charged with pedophilia.”
“If a former MP could have been a pedophile and it was covered up, then anything is possible,” Bridgen remarked.
He then told how last year a source approached him with “information about child trafficking into the UK,” including “detailed names of people involved on the ground; where the children were being brought in; where they were being taken; where their photographs were being taken; and the name of the company that was instrumental in laundering the money” used to buy these children.
The source had brought this information to the police, to the counter-intelligence agency MI5, and to the National Crime Agency, and “nothing was done” by any of these groups. Not only did they fail to act on the information, but “mysteriously, within two days of dropping the file with the National Crime Agency,” the source’s LinkedIn profile was “visited and investigated by someone who worked at the company who was named in the file.”
“Meaning they were tipped off,” Jones noted.
Bridgen told how the source had recorded all of his phone calls with MI5, the police force, and the National Crime Agency, and when they failed to act, Bridgen “sent a file with all the information to senior politicians.”
“Eventually, all I got back was, ‘Take it to the police.’ I pointed out this had already been to the police, and it had been to MI5. There actually was an MI5 officer who had been very sympathetic and realized how important this evidence was. And he tried to push it. He was removed from the service. That’s how deep the corruption runs.”
In a June 2024 interview on the Resistance Podcast, Bridgen elaborated, “And then when you see the names, you see why. They are known names.”
He shared further horrifying details about the final end of the children who are trafficked and abused.
“They use them in the sex trade for about three years and then when they’re worn out they organ harvest them,” Bridgen shared.
“No one’s interested. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to talk about a lot of things.”
Bridgen believes this demand for child trafficking is an explanation for the drive to continue wars around the world, including the war in Ukraine, because the conflicts present “a huge opportunity for child trafficking.”
Jones pointed out it was publicly admitted that decades ago, sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein entered war zones in Kosovo and Serbia and bought “nine- and 10-year-old girls” in order to sell them into sex slavery in the U.S. The father of Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was one of the main directors of the “blackmail pedophile operations” of “MI6 and Mossad,” according to Jones.
“Ultimately, I think it’s the glue that holds the self-proclaimed elites around the world together, because once they’re involved in pedophilia or profiting from child trafficking, it’s the ultimate blackmail,” Bridgen said. “There’s no way out of the club for them. They all have to go down together.”
Offenders and accused who pose a public safety risk may now be subject to 24-7 court-ordered electronic monitoring by Alberta Correctional Services as part of their community supervision conditions
Alberta’s government is taking action to combat rising crime and restore safety by launching an electronic monitoring program as part of its Safe Street Action Plan.
Alberta’s government is keeping a promise and implementing a new ankle bracelet monitoring program in response to the country’s problematic bail system. The ongoing catch-and-release policy brought in by Ottawa forced Alberta’s government to take additional action to protect families and communities.
Starting Jan. 15, the new provincial ankle bracelet electronic monitoring program to help hold high-risk and repeat offenders accountable will officially launch. Through this program, offenders and accused who pose a public safety risk may now be subject to 24-7 court-ordered electronic monitoring by Alberta Correctional Services as part of their community supervision conditions.
“Ottawa’s Bill C-75 has broken the bail system. We are taking an important step toward combating rising crime. High-risk offenders pose a significant risk to public safety and require enhanced supervision in the community. As government, it’s our duty to protect Albertans and their communities. Ankle bracelet electronic monitoring is another tool in the toolbox for courts to consider when determining sentencing or bail conditions, helping us combat rising crime and create safer Alberta communities.”
Announced alongside other measures to enhance community safety in last spring’s Public Safety Statutes Amendments Act, 2024, individuals under a court-ordered electronic monitoring condition will be required to wear a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking device monitored by a new unit within Alberta Correctional Services, ensuring compliance and consistent oversight of high-risk offenders on bail and community release throughout the province.
Ankle bracelet electronic monitoring will protect Albertans and communities by helping to secure offender-restricted areas, such as victims’ residences, places of employment or any other area deemed off-limits as part of an individual’s bail or community-release conditions. Probation officers within Alberta Correctional Services continue to supervise individuals under provincial community-based court conditions and bail supervision. Previously, this supervision primarily occurred during regular business hours and did not involve the use of GPS electronic monitoring ankle bracelets. Anyone under court-ordered electronic monitoring conditions will be informed of the program requirements, including the tracking of their location.
“Alberta’s government continues to call for federal bail and sentencing reform to stop violent criminals from re-entering our communities. We remain committed to prioritizing the safety of Albertans through measures like the use of ankle monitors, strengthening the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts and policing to protect Albertans from violent criminals.”
Following extensive stakeholder engagements and an open technology vendor procurement process, the launch of the provincial electronic monitoring program enhances community supervision with around-the-clock monitoring and adds to the various methods and community supports already used by probation officers, including regular reporting, referrals to community programs and ongoing engagement with policing partners. Additionally, this program aligns Alberta with programs in other provinces across Canada.
Quick facts
- The new program will supervise individuals whose conditions include court-ordered electronic monitoring.
- Alberta’s electronic monitoring program is supported by $2.8 million to cover implementation costs for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
- In August 2024, the government selected SCRAM Systems as the technology vendor for the ankle bracelet electronic monitoring program through an open procurement process.
- The estimated end date for the electronic monitoring vendor contract is March 31, 2029.
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