An emerging Venezuelan gang has the potential to be “more violent” than Tren de Aragua and target rural America, according to an expert.
Members of the Venezuelan-based gang have formed the “Anti-Tren” gang, which federal authorities say is made up almost exclusively of former members of Tren de Aragua.
In a newly unsealed April federal indictment, prosecutors accused 21 men of running drug and prostitution rings in New York City. According to the indictment, members of Anti-Tren “protect their power and territory through various criminal acts, which includes violence towards members of Tren de Aragua.
“Preserving and protecting the power and territory of Anti-Tren and its members and associates through acts involving murder, assault, other acts of violence, and threats of violence, including acts of violence and threats of violence directed at members and associates of Tren de Aragua,” the indictment states.
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Members of Anti-Tren are also enriched through illegal smuggling, which includes young Venezuelan women, sex trafficking of young women, drug trafficking and armed robberies, federal officials allege.
Robert Charles, assistant secretary of state at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs from October 2003 to March 2005 and Maine gubernatorial candidate, told Fox News Digital he thinks the Anti-Tren group has the potential to become more violent than Tren de Aragua.
“I’ve read some of the public accounts that suggest that this offshoot group is trying to distinguish itself by being more violent,” Charles said. “With MS-13, they had various tests and things that they went through, and there were offshoots there that became more violent than the original group.”
Charles said gangs like Anti-Tren attempt to dominate an area geographically and one of the ways they accomplish that is through violence and intimidation.
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“They are also doing violence in an environment which they’re taking advantage of people. They’re taking advantage of the homeless, they’re taking advantage of rural America,” Charles said of Anti-Tren.
Charles said gangs like Anti-Tren are targeting rural parts of America because that’s where they can “maximize their gain” with little risk.
“We don’t have the infrastructure in a very rural state to put patrols up through the northern part of the state and, frankly, to even keep drugs from coming in and the gangs from coming here,” Charles said of his state, Maine. “Criminals are bad guys, but they are not stupid. And so what they look for is they look for opportunities to maximize their gain with the least possible risk.”
Charles said he thinks the group will be eager to get into fights with Tren de Aragua, which is why authorities need to work fast to quash the group.
“I think right now their numbers are relatively modest,” Charles said. “If you look away from it, if you pretend that it’s not important, if you appease it instead of deterring it, then absolutely it will grow. That’s just the nature of crime.”
The Anti-Tren gang has a presence that expands beyond New York City.
In September 2024, a Texas woman was robbed at gunpoint, pistol-whipped and tied up in her Dallas-area home located in the ritzy neighborhood of Bluffview, where the average home value is $880,000, according to Zillow.
The robbery happened around 10 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2024, after the woman had just returned home from dinner.
The men involved in the incident allegedly targeted the woman in her driveway, forced her into her home, then tied her up at gunpoint, according to records obtained by Fox News. The men involved allegedly threatened to cut her fingers off.
Using Google Translate to communicate with the victim, the suspects left the house with $75,000 worth of jewelry, a Ferragamo handbag, a Judith Leiber handbag, a Gucci purse, coins from a box inside the house and the victim’s phone.
Documents obtained by Fox News at the time indicated that Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, one of the men arrested, said the other men were part of the Anti-Tren gang, something the Dallas Police Department didn’t comment on.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
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