SEATTLE - In a matter of months, the Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua has gone from a regional criminal group in Venezuela and turned into a transnational criminal organization with presence in at least 16 states in the U.S.
The gang has taken advantage of large-scale Venezuelan migration to extend its reach across the Americas and, in recent months, they have been linked to a number of high-profile crimes all over the United States, such as the murders of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas.
