What to Know About the Tren de Aragua Gang

The Tren de Aragua gang is very much in the news, thanks to the Trump administration's deportation of alleged members. The White House says nearly 300 members of the gang were arrested over the weekend and flown to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—despite a judge's order to turn the flights around. So what is Tren de Aragua? Coverage:

• The start: Tren de Aragua ("train from Aragua") began as a prison gang about a decade ago in Tocoron prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, reports the BBC. Under leader Hector Guerrero Flores, the gang famously turned the prison into something more like a resort than a jail—it even had a zoo—until authorities shut it down. Flores escaped and remains at large.

• Expansion: The gang has since expanded beyond the prison and beyond Venezuela into a bona fide transnational criminal enterprise, per NPR. It gained a foothold in neighboring Colombia, Peru, and Chile, for example, by recruiting Venezuelans who had moved abroad.
• Ideology: "There's no ideological cause. Their only objective is money," Ronna Rísquez, an expert on organized crime in Latin America tells the Washington Post. The gang initially specialized in drug smuggling, extortion, and prostitution, but it also has been linked to violent kidnappings and murder.

• In the US: Last year, the government said it had identified more than 600 migrants in the US affiliated with the gang, reports NBC News. The Biden administration designated Tren de Aragua a "transnational criminal organization," and the Trump administration one-upped that by designating the gang a "foreign terrorist organization." The latter set the stage for the weekend use of a law used previously only during wartime.
• Infamous tactics: Alleged members of the gang have been arrested in Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, Texas, and California. The gang is suspected in the shooting of two NYPD officers as well as in the murder of a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida, per NBC. Last year, gang members allegedly dressed as police officers and kidnapped Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan army officer, who had fled to Chile. His body was found days later.

(More Tren de Aragua stories.)