Eight alleged members of the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) have been charged in the Northern Districts of Illinois and Texas with serious offenses including murder, kidnapping, and racketeering. All eight defendants are believed to be Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the United States between December 2021 and April 2024, with one currently in custody in Colombia on unrelated charges.
TdA, a violent transnational criminal organization originating as a prison gang in Venezuela, has expanded its network across the Western Hemisphere, establishing a presence in the United States. Its criminal activities encompass drug and firearms trafficking, commercial sex trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, theft, fraud, extortion, and acts of violence to enforce its operations. In the U.S., TdA operates through regional cells, with leaders managing activities, collecting funds, and directing violence.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, "Eight TdA members illegally entered the United States between 2021 and 2024 and are alleged to have committed horrific crimes, including murdering a father in front of his teenage daughter." Blanche added that "under the Biden administration, open-border policies left the doors wide open, and hundreds of suspected and convicted Tren de Aragua terrorists poured into this country." FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted President Trump's designation of TdA as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, stating it "has given this FBI and our law-enforcement partners the tools we need to wipe out their operations."
In the Northern District of Illinois, three alleged TdA members—Josue Pacheco Torres, 26, Julian Pachano, 19, and Kleiver Monasterio Briceno, 20—were charged with conspiracy to kidnap and murder a man in Chicago. Court documents allege the victim was kidnapped near Meyering Park on May 18, forced into a car, and later found deceased in an abandoned building, having been shot multiple times and suffering blunt force injuries. This conspiracy is linked to the defendants' involvement in TdA, which Chicago law enforcement has been investigating for acts of violence since 2024.
Separately, a grand jury in the Northern District of Texas indicted five alleged TdA members: Hector Asdrubal Garcia Zuniga, 36; Carlos Luis Zambrano Bolivar, 27; Jhonny Jesus Martinez Serrano, 31; Jhonatan Nahin Toro Gonzalez, 23; and Ehiker Alexander Morales Mendoza, 39. They face racketeering charges involving murder, kidnapping, and other violent offenses, including the alleged kidnapping and murder of three individuals on or about August 24, 2024, to maintain and increase their position within TdA.
If convicted, the defendants in both districts face potential sentences of up to life in prison, with Pacheco Torres, Monasteria Briceno, Garcia Zuniga, Zambrano Bolivar, and Martinez Serrano also facing the possibility of the death penalty. These cases are part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative and Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV), which aim to eliminate criminal cartels and transnational criminal organizations operating in the United States.