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

BOGOTA, Colombia — The Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that President Trump is focusing on in his newest wave of deportations, shaped in a Venezuelan jail however has branched out to change into a multinational crime group that has pulled off brazen assaults in locations starting from New York Metropolis to Santiago, Chile.

Tren de Aragua, Spanish for “the practice of Aragua” was based in 2014 within the Tocorón jail, within the central Venezuelan state of Aragua. It could have taken its title from a union of railroad employees constructing a practice connection between Caracas and Aragua.

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

However as Venezuela sank into its worst financial meltdown in historical past and crime grew to become much less profitable, the Tren de Aragua branched out abroad. It recruited new gang members from among the many 8 million Venezuelans who had fled the nation’s financial disaster. Initially, it established legal cells in neighboring Colombia, Peru and Chile, the place it smuggled medication and other people and operated extortion rackets and prostitution rings.

The Tren de Aragua’s most infamous alleged crime was the 2024 killing of Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan military officer who conspired in opposition to Nicolás Maduro, the nation’s authoritarian chief, then fled to Chile. Suspected gang member dressed as Chilean cops kidnapped Ojeda from his residence. Days later, his lifeless physique was discovered stuffed in a suitcase and buried in cement. Two Tren de Aragua members have been arrested within the case.

The Tren de Aragua ultimately expanded to the US, which is residence to about 700,000 Venezuelan migrants. Moreover a wave of robberies, the Tren de Aragua is suspected within the capturing of two New York Law enforcement officials and the killing of a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida.

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

Final yr, the Biden administration labelled Tren de Aragua as a transnational legal group, and in January, the U.S. authorities designated the Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.