Venezuelan Gang Tren De Aragua (TDA) – James Allbee

This is a direct result of the failed boarder policies that have allowed over 40,000 Venezuelans into Denver Metro Area alone, some who are violent members of a gang known as Tren De Aragua (TDA). These individuals are breaking into vacant apartments, patrolling with assault weapons and forcing residents to pay them, home invasions, human smuggling and trafficking, and money laundering. There acts are bold as they are not afraid of being captured on Camera as they are hard to Identify. They have also been given “the Green Light” to attack Law Enforcement by any means necessary. The Denver Metro task force known as RAVEN is shifting their focus on these individuals but there are unique challenges with this demographic. Most are not carrying ID’s and using different names, are jumping from state-to-state committing crimes, and they rarely identify themselves as being part of TDA and deny affiliation. Hopefully with a multijurisdictional task force and continued communication with other agencies (state and federal) about these individuals an accurate database can be established and efforts to crack down on this criminal element is successful. This problem will take much longer to address then how it started as they have established themselves is several U.S Cities and growing in strength every day.