Explainer-What is the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua?

The United States deported hundreds of men over the weekend alleged to be members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang with prison origins that has become a key reference in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

The move, done under a 1798 wartime law and in defiance of a federal judge, came after Trump's administration designated the group a global terrorist organization in February.

The administration of Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, last year sanctioned the gang, which has been blamed for a surge in crime in the Americas but whose scope of operations in the U.S. is debated.

WHAT IS TREN DE ARAGUA?

Known for human trafficking, the group has also been linked to extortion, kidnapping, money laundering, contract killings, smuggling and organized retail theft from Panama to Brazil and along the Andean corridor, Latin American police officials say.

Led by Hector "Nino" Guerrero, who escaped from the Tocoron prison in Venezuela along with other gang leaders just before a police raid in 2023, the group controls routes taken by Venezuelans and other South American migrants heading south to relatively prosperous Chile and other destinations in South America or Europe.

WHAT ARE THE U.S. CONNECTIONS?

The true size and scope of Tren de Aragua's operations in the United States is unclear, but Trump and his administration have used the arrests of migrants with alleged ties to the gang as justification for his government's deportation drive.

Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has claimed that a hotel in New York City that housed migrants was used as a "Tren de Aragua base of operations."

Noem accompanied immigration officials during the arrest of a Tren de Aragua "ringleader" in New York City in January, her agency said.

In February, the Department of Homeland Security said the military flew a flight of "criminal aliens" who were part of Tren de Aragua, calling them "the worst of the worst" but without providing specifics about criminal charges or convictions.

Authorities during the Biden administration also arrested individuals accused of Tren de Aragua ties, which then-candidate Trump frequently highlighted during the 2024 president race to build support for his pledge to speed up deportations.

Trump often referenced the case of Venezuelan Jose Antonio Ibarra, who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2024 murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley. Ibarra's brother Diego Ibarra had held on immigration violations and accused of being a member of Tren de Aragua.

WHAT DOES THE U.S. SAY?

The State Department has designated Tren de Aragua and other drug cartels as global terrorist organizations and said they pose a risk to U.S. national security, foreign policy and economic interests.

INTERPOL Washington, a component of the Department of Justice, described the gang in February as one of the world's most dangerous transnational criminal organizations.

WHAT DOES VENEZUELA SAY?

The Venezuelan government has maintained the gang was destroyed during raids in 2023 and no longer exists.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on March 17 that of the more than 600 migrants who have been returned to Venezuela from the U.S. and Mexico on deportation flights since February, just 16 were facing some sort of judicial process and none were members of the Tren de Aragua.

WHAT ARE THE TREN DE ARAGUA ORIGINS?

Formed more than a decade ago, the gang traditionally operated out of the Tocoron prison in the state of Aragua about 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Caracas, where the group bribed guards for special privileges.

Tren de Aragua's sphere of influence gradually extended beyond the prison walls, first by extorting businesses in Venezuela before spreading into human trafficking, given the large number of migrants leaving Venezuela.

The group's name, Aragua Train, may come from an early association with the railroad workers' trade union.

Tren de Aragua took over routes that had been used for drug trafficking and other smuggling of contraband. But it has changed the merchandise to people, experts say, staying away from the more risky business of drug trafficking apart from a ketamine business.

WHERE HAS THE GANG SPREAD?

Police in South American countries including Peru and Chile say Tren de Aragua has spread across borders.

It has been accused of sexual exploitation and contract killings in Chile and came to the attention of police in Peru around 2019 after bodies were found mutilated, officials say.

In Colombia, home to an estimated 1.5 million Venezuelan exiles, Tren de Aragua has built a lucrative business in stolen cellphones and accessories while also running prostitution rings, according to the Attorney General's office.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta and Jose del Pino; Additional reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas and Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Lincoln Feast.)