A report from the National Intelligence Council found that FBI analysts believe that “some” Venezuelan officials enable gang members’ migration into the United States.
Although the report noted that the “Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with [Tren de Aragua] and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” officials still believe that “some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members’ migration from Venezuela to the United States and use members as proxies in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the United States to advance what they see as the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety in these countries.”
Despite noting that the Maduro regime does not have an official policy for the gang, the intelligence report admits that “some government officials may cooperate with TDA for financial gain.” It further notes that “mid- to low-level” officials are most likely to profit from gang-related activities.
The assessment further notes that there was a “spike” in Venezuelan encounters at the U.S. southern border between 2021 and 2024, in which “some TDA members could have been present as they have generally moved with Venezuelan migrant communities and profit from human trafficking and migrant smuggling.”
The report explained that the Intelligence Community (IC) is “closely tracking key indicators of any shift in the relationships between the Maduro regime and TDA, including [redacted] weapons transfers, [redacted]. If the regime’s relationship with the group became more cooperative, the IC would expect to see most regime operations against TDA increase and some indication that the regime was providing TDA state resources.”
