Ten members or associates of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have been indicted on charges of running a gun trafficking scheme in New York City that stretched across the country and aspired to spread internationally, officials said Wednesday.
The indictments, announced by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, came after a more than 8-month undercover operation by the district attorney’s office, New York City police and other law enforcement agencies. Six of the people charged in the 120-count indictment unsealed Wednesday were taken into custody Tuesday on firearm, drug and conspiracy charges.
The Tren de Aragua gang has been linked to a series of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes throughout the Western Hemisphere tied to a mass exodus of migrants from Venezuela, where the gang originated more than a decade ago. Public awareness of Tren de Aragua in the U.S. climbed after footage from a security camera surfaced on social media showing a group of heavily armed men forcing their way into an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora. President Donald Trump said during his campaign that he planned to “ liberate Aurora ” from Venezuelans he falsely said were “taking over the whole town.”
Members of the violent street gang have been blamed for sex trafficking, drug smuggling and police shootings across the U.S., as well as the exploitation of migrants.
Of those arrested in the Queens indictment, two were taken into custody in Texas and Florida. Four suspects were taken into custody in New York in an operation that left a city police officer with a severely fractured arm after a defendant slammed it with a door while trying to escape, officials said.
Two of those suspects had been arraigned as of Wednesday afternoon.
Katz said charges had not yet been filed in the ongoing investigation into the assault on the officer. She praised those involved in the undercover operation for seizing guns and drugs.
“As a result of our investigation, 34 dangerous weapons are now off the streets, and we are dismantling this gang as it attempts to establish itself locally.” Katz said, adding that two of those guns were ghost guns — firearms without serial numbers that are difficult to trace — one an AR-style rifle and the other a firearm modified to fire continuously like an automatic weapon.
Two other suspects named in the indictment, including alleged ringleader 24-year-old Enyerbert Blanco, were already in custody on other charges, officials said. Two others remain at large.
Authorities detailed in the indictment how the group used the telephone app WhatsApp to communicate about the gun sales, some of which happened in broad daylight in parking lots or by hiding weapons in trash bags.
Authorities allege three of the indicted suspects, including Blanco, obtained the weapons from other states, including some guns that had been reported stolen. Another suspect provided weapons from his own inventory of firearms. Many of the other suspects acted as couriers to deliver the guns.
The indictment alleges that the criminal enterprise also attempted to deliver weapons internationally to Colombia, hoping to increase their profits. Those attempts were thwarted by the undercover operation, authorities said.
Undercover officers bought some of the weapons as part of the operation, according to the district attorney’s office. Those officers also purchased 48 grams of pink cocaine also known as tusi — a mixture of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine — from the defendants during the operation.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Wednesday that all of the indicted Tren de Aragua members had entered the country illegally around 2023. He said the police department had become aware of the gang’s activities in the city including using motorized scooters to snatch cellphones and conducting organized retail thefts. He said the gang unit has identified at least 67 gang members in the city.
The arrests Tuesday came the same day that newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem joined federal agents to announce the arrest of immigrants wanted on criminal charges. That included an operation in the Bronx that snared Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26. Authorities say he was part of the group of armed men, some affiliated with Tren de Aragua, who appeared in the Aurora, Colorado, video.