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They're Venezuelan prisoners from Venezuela released 2023..I.C.E Immigration Custom Enforcement caught gang sex traffic organizer from Venezuela named Tren de aragua . https://insightcrime.org/venezuela-organized-crime-news/tren-de-aragua/Reports of new cells continue to surface in South America, although officials suggest that many of these are copycat groups seeking to take advantage of Tren de Aragua’s notoriety. It remains to be seen whether Tren de Aragua will maintain its existing network, continue to grow, or if it will fall into decline.A 2021 report from Brazil stated that Tren de Aragua members had been jailed in the northern state of Roraima, near Venezuela, and were working with Brazil’s largest criminal group, the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC), claims repeated by a 2022 academic investigation, although the exact nature of this relationship remains unclear.Tren de Aragua has clashed with multiple groups, including the ELN, for control of border crossings between Venezuela and Colombia. Local officials and security forces across the region have highlighted the gang’s willingness to use targeted violence to force out local gangs.The gang’s relationship with Venezuelan security forces and government officials has been complex. On the one hand, multiple sources interviewed by InSight Crime have pointed out that the group has corrupted local and regional officials. Its growth was also driven by the state’s unofficial devolution of power to the pranes and the impunity it enjoyed within Tocorón. Even following the government invasion of Tocorón, its relationship with officials remains murky. It has lost its stronghold, but appears to have received advanced warning, and no high-ranking gang members were captured.ProspectsTren de Aragua’s expansion across South America was the first time a Venezuelan gang managed to project itself internationally. It has become a threat to regional security, and dismantling it will not be easy.However, its international spread appears to have slowed, and the loss of its operational base in Tocorón prison could disrupt its transnational operations. What’s more, security forces across the region are pumping resources into targeting the gang’s cells, with over 100 alleged members arrested in 2022 and 2023 by Peruvian, Chilean, and Colombian officials. These arrests, while weakening the gang outside of prison, have the potential to bring the group back to its roots and spread through foreign prisons.The mass migration that allowed for Tren de Aragua’s expansion is also slowing and evolving. There was little criminal infrastructure in South America prepared for the number of Venezuelan migrants who traveled across the continent between 2018 and 2022, allowing Tren de Aragua to step in and claim the lion’s share of the profits.Now, however, Venezuelans are increasingly traveling north to the United States, crossing through Colombia and Central America. This is decreasing the migrant-centered income in Tren de Aragua’s existing territory. With human smuggling and trafficking along the northern route already controlled by powerful gangs, Tren de Aragua is not likely to be able to expand north as easily as it did in South America.