Venezuela’s Cop Killing Street Gang Tren de Aragua Takes America - Or Does It?

The Underworld Podcast

The Tren de Aragua grew out of disastrous regime policies to give gang leaders more power in prisons. Its mysterious leader, Niño Guerrero, soon controlled an entire facility, and installed a prison bar, a nightclub—and even a zoo.

More state bungling allowed the Tren to take over entire city neighbourhoods unchallenged. So when Venezuela’s economy plummeted and hundreds of thousands fled the nation, it became a key player in the booming migrant smuggling trade, spreading into neighboring Latin American states.

Now the Tren is in the US. But is there really a full-scale invasion, as media are beginning to say? We unpick the fact and fiction of this dangerous new group.

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