Notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua connected to 500 NYC arrests so far this year: report

Members of the now-infamous Tren de Aragua gang and its associates have been arrested over 500 so far this year in New York City, according to news reports. 

“If you go back two years – that’s about when we think they first started arriving – we’ve made 45% more arrests than we did two years ago,” a law enforcement source told the New York Post. “This is a gang that conspires to make money off of committing crimes.”

The Venezuelan gang was in the national spotlight in September in Aurora, Colorado when security camera surfaced on social media of heavily armed members brazenly entering an apartment in the Denver suburb, according the the Associated Press.

Law enforcement in New York City says they have arrested 517 people either in the gang or co-conspirators that work with the gang. 

According to the news reports, the gang also works with an offshoot group called “Diablos de la 42," which has members as young as 11 years old. 

Fifty-seven percent of the New York arrests of these gang arrests reportedly occurred in Midtown, where lots of migrant-related arrests have occurred. 

“When you add associates and co-defendants that aren’t in the [NYPD gang] database, there’s 80 more individuals who are candidates for the database, and possibly hundreds as arrest associates in other crimes,” the law enforcement source said.