By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

An additional 27 members of Venezuelan transnational criminal organizations, Tren de Aragua and its splinter faction, anti-Tren, have been indicted in New York in an ongoing prosecution of groups the Trump administration has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

Last year, several hundred TdA members were federally indicted, including on terrorism charges for the first time in U.S. history, The Center Square reported. Seventy indictments unsealed in December were brought by U.S. attorneys in five states: Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York and Texas.

Last month, 87 more TdA members were indicted in Nebraska for bank and ATM theft being committed nationwide to further their criminal enterprise, The Center Square reported.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in the Southern District of New York, detailed what he called “horrific crimes” allegedly committed against women.

A newly unsealed indictment lists 38 charges of racketeering, murder, double murder, murder-for-hire, kidnapping, sex trafficking and other offenses. The majority of the 27 defendants charged, 21, were previously charged in another 12-count indictment. Five of the six newly added defendants are in federal custody; one remains at large.

Those charged, all illegally in the U.S., “planned and carried out a series of horrific crimes, including gunpoint robberies, murders, and the exploitation of vulnerable young women through sex trafficking,” Clayton said. “Tren de Aragua is in the business of murder, sex trafficking and intimidation, and they brought that business to New York while being unlawfully present in the United States.” Those charged “exerted ruthless control over sex trafficking victims through intimidation, brutality, and threats of violence against them and their loved ones – leaving lasting trauma in their wake.”

Anti-Tren is nearly exclusively comprised of former TdA members and associates, the DOJ says. They operate throughout New York City but have a heavy presence in the Bronx and Queens as well as in New Jersey, Illinois and Washington, investigators allege.

To expand their territory, Anti-Tren members and associates commit murder, assault and other acts of violence against their own members and TdA members, the DOJ says.

Their criminal enterprise depends on smuggling Venezuelan women and girls, “multadas,” into the U.S. and forcing them into sex trafficking, authorities allege. They’re also trafficking controlled substances, including “tusi,” and committing armed robberies, including of banks, authorities allege.

Those charged threatened to kill the multadas and their families if they didn’t engage in forced sex acts for TdA and anti-Tren, the indictment alleges. They also assaulted, shot and killed those who didn’t comply, and tracked down and kidnapped the women and girls who tried to flee, according to the charges.

TdA and Anti-Tren human smuggling and trafficking involves finding real estate to use as stash houses where victims are held. Victims are transported across the country using weapons and intimidation tactics, authorities say.

Anti-Tren members are also helping associates flee prosecution, providing bail for those who are arrested and intimidating and committing violence against potential witnesses, Clayton’s office says.

The charges describe two defendants shooting to death victims in the Bronx; conspiring to kill others in New York and Florida, shooting anti-Tren members in the leg as a form of gang punishment; committing home invasion robberies at gunpoint in Yonkers and the Bronx; kidnapping and sex trafficking crimes, among others.

Investigators leading the case are from Homeland Security Investigations New York, Seattle, Chicago, and Portland, and the New York Police Department.

Multiple other law enforcement groups are involved in the investigation, including the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office; Aurora Police Department in Aurora, Colorado; U.S. Marshal’s New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force; U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Gang Unit and New York Human Intelligence Division; Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York and Chicago Enforcement and Removal Operations; ATF, FBI, U.S. Marshals in Oregon; CBP-New York; New York City Crime Analysis Center at the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; NYPD Computer Crimes Unit; King County, Washington Sheriff’s Office; and Seattle Police Department.