AURORA, Colo. — Following the announcement of the arrest of confirmed and suspected Venezuelan gang members in Aurora, Scripps News Denver sat down with an organized expert to discuss the challenges that come with trying to identify members of Tren de Aragua (TdA).
The Aurora Police Department confirmed to Scripps News Denver that 10 documented members of TdA have been arrested. Six are in custody, including two brothers allegedly connected to a July shooting on Nome Street. A police spokesperson said the 10 arrests are related to crimes "assumed to stretch beyond just Nome Street."
Aurora
APD confirms additional arrests of confirmed, suspected Venezuelan gang members
Mike LaSusa is the deputy director of content for InSight Crime, which studies organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“In the past, you'd have big, sort of hegemonic cartel type groups, like Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel is probably the classic example. Today, you have much more diffused networks and nodes that rely less on a powerful top leader and more on sort of the relationships that are built around these illegal activities," LaSusa explained.
TdA is a Venezuelan prison gang that built up its criminal power beyond the prison and into the outside world, according to LaSusa.
"They got involved in things like smuggling of drugs and people, and also predatory crimes like extortion," he said. “As the Venezuelan political and economic crisis deepened, the migration from Venezuela grew, and this group was able to take advantage of that migration to smuggle the migrants and earn money off of them that way, and also exploit them for purposes of sexual exploitation or labor exploitation, extortion, in the communities where they arrived in other countries. So that was how the gang was able to expand beyond Venezuela into other countries in South America, by following those migration flows.”
LaSusa could not speak to the prevalence of TdA within Colorado but did say it's unlikely that top leadership within the gang would be directing the activities of any alleged members in the United States.
“The reason I say that is because last year, the Venezuelan government did a raid on several prisons that were controlled by Tren de Aragua, including its main headquarters, the Tocoron Prison. And since that time, the gang members have fled [and] become sort of dispersed, probably throughout South America," said LaSusa. “We have seen this gang expand into other countries, particularly in South America. So far, they have not seemed to make inroads in a sort of coordinated way in the United States.”
Hear more from LaSusa in the video player below:
There are several reasons why it's challenging to identify TdA members, according to LaSusa.
“It's really difficult to identify folks as a member of this gang in particular, because the Venezuelan government itself either isn't willing or isn't able to provide that information, right?" said LaSusa. “The more fear is generated about the gang, the more likely you are to have impostors that assume the gang's name to intimidate victims, and the more difficult it's going to become to identify the real gang members."
LaSusa would love to learn how Aurora PD made the TdA connection with the individuals arrested.
“I would really like to know more about how they identify these gang members," LaSusa said. “It's difficult to identify these gang members. Some of them may be using the name as imposters. So I would just caution everybody to examine the evidence before they jump to a conclusion that somebody is a member of a particular gang.”
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