HOUSTON – New search warrants involving the accused killers of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray show law enforcement are investigating whether Franklin Pena and Johan Martinez-Rangel are involved with the Venezuelan gang and criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).
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The organization started as a prison gang in the state of Aragua in Venezuela and has now expanded into a transnational criminal organization, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who designated the gang as a foreign terrorist organization and spoke about them on Sept. 16.
“TdA is characterized as MS13 on steroids, TdA is the largest criminal organization in Venezuela,” Abbott said.
According to Abbott, the gang is known for its brutal violence and its members have committed crimes like murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and trafficking of drugs, weapons and people.
Abbott says since 2021, more than 3,000 undocumented immigrants from Venezuela have been arrested in Texas and more than 200 are wanted.
“There is currently no TdA database to be able to verify if these arrests are of TdA members or non-TdA members. So what the Texas Department of Public Safety is working on, as well as other law enforcement, they’re working to create a database from scratch,” Abbott said.
Authorities in countries such as Chile, Peru and Columbia, which all have a large population of Venezuelan migrants, have accused the group of being behind a spree of violence in the region, according to the Associated Press.
Abbott said he ordered Texas DPS to elevate TdA to a Tier one gang and has also ordered DPS to launch a statewide operation targeting the gang to disrupt their criminal operations in the state.
By declaring TdA a foreign terrorist organization, gang members could face stiffer penalties and increased sentences for crimes such as distributing illegal drugs, according to the Texas Tribune.
Chris Cabrera, spokesman of the National Border Patrol Council, says TdA members don’t stand out.
“They’re not like traditional like MS13′s where you could see them coming a mile away with the crazy tattoos they have all over their faces. These guys fly under the radar,” he said.
Concerns have grown nationally about the gang’s activity inside the United States. In September, 11 Republicans wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for a strategy from the Biden administration to combat the gang.
The Associated Press and the Texas Tribune contributed to this article