(VitalNews.org) – A violent Venezuelan prison gang called Tren de Arabia is infiltrating the United States. The Treasury Department sanctioned the prison gang as a transnational criminal organization and stated that the gang participates in crimes such as human trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering, and drug trafficking.
Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales described TDA as “MS-13 on steroids,” saying that members have been coming into the United States for years now. He said, “They’re extremely aggressive. It’s not as if they’re a passive group or they want to quietly go about things.”
Gonzales continued, “They’re coming from Venezuela, one of the most war-torn countries over the last decade. So, they’re battle-hardened in many ways. And they’ve made this trek from there to here. But they are also becoming more organized and more brazen.”
Last year, only eight hundred Venezuelans were deported, despite there being over three hundred thousand encounters with Venezuelan immigrants at the border.
The Biden Administration started sending back illegal immigrants from Venezuela to try to discourage their flow through the border. Said Gonzales, “They basically released these people and told them, ‘You’re getting a one-way trip to the United States.'”
There have already been multiple crimes across the United States linked to the gang. A Colorado jewelry heist was organized with multiple gang members posing as clients. The New Mexico police department shared a bulletin saying TDA members have the “green light” to engage violently with law enforcement.
TDA has been linked to dozens of robberies in New York City, and two members were accused of attacking law enforcement in the same area.
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