Tren de Aragua, which police have warned is rapidly expanding its criminal activities with a slew of cellphone thefts in New York City, is a priority for the FBI, agent John Morales has said.

By Chris Samuel

12:05 ET, Tue, Feb 13, 2024 | UPDATED: 12:43 ET, Tue, Feb 13, 2024

A feared Venezuelan gang that has set up in New York City could ally with the notorious MS-13, a senior FBI agent has warned.

Tren de Aragua, which police have warned is rapidly expanding its criminal activities with a slew of cellphone thefts in the city, is a priority for the FBI, agent John Morales told the New York Post.

Morales, the special agent leading the El Paso division in Texas, said the bureau is monitoring the gang’s growth closely and is concerned that it could join forces with criminals already operating in the city.

The Post reported this week that the Venezuelan gang, which has a crime network across South America, is now replicating its methods in the Big Apple, recruiting new members from migrants at shelters to create phone robbery gangs, and its international connections to traffic the devices to Colombia to be sold.

Morales is now warning that Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and other criminal organisations could form temporary alliances and that the FBI is actively sharing intelligence about the Venezuelan gang.

Troops at storming of Tocorón Penitentiary September 20, the facility Guerrero is said to have escaped from. (Image: AP)

“While these gangs wouldn’t normally mix, it’s always going to be a concern as the gang [Tren de Aragua] expands in strength and establishes a foothold,” Morales told the outlet.

“Right now we are working with our local law enforcement partners and sharing intelligence in order to stop the growth of Tren de Aragua.”

Gang members generally move through border cities like El Paso on their way to other parts of the US, the agent said.

Border Patrol detained at least 41 Tren de Aragua members trying to cross the US southern border between October 2022 and September 2023.

The FBI is urging Venezuelan migrants to report gang members, with the offer of temporary visas and witness protection for those who do.

“Their first victims are their fellow Venezuelans,” Morales said, adding that Tren de Aragua attempts to find new recruits among migrants from the country.

According to law enforcement officials the gang’s leader, Hector Guerrero, could be hiding in the US. (Image: Venezuelan Interior Ministry)

Elmer Canales (centre) who US officials say had been a long-time leader of MS-13. (Image: No credit)

The agent said the gangs extort Venezuelans by demanding bribes for protection and passage from Venezuela into Colombia and from Mexico into the United States.

Another expert warned there is also the potential for turf wars to break out between gangs.

“They are already coming over as hardened criminals,” security consultant and former US marshal in El Paso Robert Almonte told The Post. “But they [Tren de Aragua] could certainly be trying to recruit others to join the gang in the US.”

He continued: “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that they could form alliances with other gangs, but what’s more likely to happen is that turf wars break out as each gang fights to control their own criminal enterprise.”

The group’s name translates as “Train of Aragua,” a province of north-central Venezuela.

The gang’s tentacles now extend into several countries in Latin America, including Colombia, Peru and Chile, and it has been making inroads in Miami and Chicago, the Post reports.

According to law enforcement officials the gang’s leader, Hector Guerrero, fled his prison HQ after a raid by the Venezuelan military raid last year and could be laying low in the US.

In Peru’s capital Lima, El Pais reports the gang murdered prostitutes and rival pimps to seize control of lucrative prostitution rings, which the outlet says brings in an estimated $275,000 a month.

In 2023, US Homeland Security and authorities in Peru formed the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit, which was created specifically to share intelligence on the gang.

MS-13 was set up by Salvadoran migrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is said to have over 10,000 members and has close links to Mexican drug cartels.