The Justice Department announced federal charges Wednesday against eight members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua for murder and kidnapping, with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirming every single one of the suspects entered the United States illegally under the Biden administration.
All eight crossed the southern border between December 2021 and April 2024, according to Blanche.
“None of these men should have been in this country,” Blanche said at a press conference. “The father in Texas should be alive today. His daughter and nephew should have never been kidnapped. The young victim in Chicago should be alive. These violent crimes and murders happened because under the Biden administration, open border policies left our borders wide open and hundreds of suspected and now convicted TDA terrorists poured through those borders into our country.”
Five of the eight suspects are charged in connection with crimes in the Dallas area. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould said TDA members dragged 33-year-old Nilzult Arneaud Petit and two children, a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, from an apartment complex in the middle of the night on Aug. 24, 2024. The group zip-tied their hands and demanded money.
When Petit could not pay, Raybould said, the gang members drove him to a bridge in Dallas and told him to jump. He refused and tried to flee. A TDA member shot him execution-style in front of the two children. The children were later found unharmed, walking along a highway service road.
The five suspects charged in the Texas case are Hector Garcia Zuniga, also known as “Murray,” Carlos Luis Zambrano Bolivar, Jhonny Jesus Serrano, Yonatan Toro Gonzalez and Ehiker Mendoza. Raybould identified Garcia Zuniga as a high-ranking TDA member also facing racketeering charges spanning state lines and international borders.
Three additional TDA members face charges in the Chicago area. U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutrous said 18-year-old Cristian Jose Rojas Barrios was kidnapped from a city park in broad daylight, beaten, held in an abandoned apartment building and shot multiple times in the head and body.
Boutrous said the gang then called the victim’s mother to tell her where she could find her son’s body.
“I want you to think about those facts for a moment,” Boutrous said. “A man kidnapped from a park in Chicago in broad daylight, beaten, held against his will, taken to an abandoned building and shot multiple times and left in a bathtub. All in the name of Tren de Aragua.”
The three suspects in the Chicago case are Kleiver Monasterio Briceno, Jose Pacheco Torres and a third unnamed individual.
Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that emerged in Venezuela under socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. President Trump designated the group a foreign terrorist organization on his first day back in office.
Blanche said nearly 350 TDA members and associates have been charged or convicted of violent crimes since Trump returned to office, including murders, sex trafficking and kidnappings. Another 350 have been charged with weapons offenses, drug trafficking and financial crimes including ATM fraud.
