(Bloomberg) -- The US designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang as a transnational criminal organization that is expanding into the US.
The label “underscores the escalating threat it poses to American communities,” US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement on Thursday.
As a result of the Treasury Department’s sanction, all property or interests related to Tren de Aragua inside the US will be blocked and must be reported to OFAC.
The criminal group’s growth is closely tied to the exodus of more than seven million Venezuelans over the last decade. Originating in a prison 150 kilometers from Caracas around 2012, Venezuelan government security officials now consider the gang the most violent criminal organization in the country, regularly accused of orchestrating kidnappings, drug trafficking and controlling swaths of the capital’s slums.
The group preys on vulnerable migrant populations to generate revenue, the US Treasury said in its statement, engages in “a range of criminal activities across borders” and abuses the U.S. financial system.
Before its recent expansion into the US, nations such as Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile had raised concerns over the group’s operations. Chilean President Gabriel Boric recently vowed to pursue Tren de Aragua members “through sky, sea and land.” The gang’s expansion there has led voters to say violence is spinning out of control, weighing heavily on the administration’s support.
(Updates with background from fifth paragraph.)
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