New indictments of alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) leaders and members, announced this week by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in New York and Nebraska, corroborate the 2024 claim by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) that the Venezuelan gang was operating throughout Tennessee. The DOJ also claimed TdA works with a powerful cartel allegedly associated with Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Nebraska on Thursday announced an indictment accusing 54 alleged TdA members and leaders of participating in a conspiracy to install malware on automated teller machines (ATMs) across much of the country.
Per the U.S. Secret Service, such “ATM jackpotting” malware allows criminals to”issue dispense commands to the ATM using the existing ATM computer and ATM dispenser connection, which results in the ATM dispensing cash to the criminal.”
Federal prosecutors in Nebraska allege the gang successfully stole “millions of dollars” using the malware, “then transferred the proceeds among its members and associates to conceal the illegally obtained cash.”
A map included in the DOJ press release appears to show TdA began stealing from ATMs in Tennessee sometime in 2024 and continued through part of 2025. It shows around 50 total incidents reported in the Volunteer State.
More than 1,500 alleged ATM jackpotting incidents involving TdA were reported nationwide since 2020, according to the DOJ.
A second indictment adds further detail to the explanation of TdA’s origins offered by TBI Director David Rausch to U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) last year, when he alleged that the gang struck an agreement with Maduro to operate one of the country’s prisons.
Rausch told the senator that the gang’s relationship with the Venezuelan government eventually led to an orchestrated prison escape of gang members, who left Venezuela for the United States, where they established criminal networks.
The Thursday indictment of alleged TdA leader Hector Guerro Flores, announced by the DOJ in the Southern District of New York, similarly alleges that the gang was originally based in the Tocorón prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, and its members later left Venezuela and spread throughout North America, South America, and Spain.
Its description of how TdA moves into new territory also echoed Rausch’s explanation of the gang’s growth.
“First, TdA members and associates infiltrated other countries by illegally crossing their borders and finding cities and other residential neighborhoods where they could easily establish control over civilian populations,” the indictment alleged. “Next, TdA members and associates committed crimes and other acts of terrorism to assert control over their territory and enrich themselves through extortions, kidnappings, robberies, murders, drug trafficking, prostitution, sex trafficking, and trafficking of guns, grenades, and ammunition.”
It also claimed many of these acts were “ordered, directed, facilitated, or otherwise supported” by the gang’s leaders in South America, including Guerro Flores.
Later in the indictment of Guerro Flores, the DOJ specifically accused TdA of involvement with the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, a criminal organization the Trump administration has connected to Maduro’s presidency. It was recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
According to the indictment, the cartel is “comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan government officials,” who seek to “facilitate the importation of tons of cocaine into the United States, including through the use of maritime drug distribution routes with boats and ships carrying hundreds or thousands of kilograms of narcotics, including cocaine.”
The indictment alleges that TdA “worked in concert” with the Venezuelan cartel to smuggle drugs into the United States.
It further alleges that Guerro Flores “worked with several of the largest cocaine traffickers in Venezuela to transport tons of cocaine from Venezuela for eventual distribution in the United States.”
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered strikes against multiple vessels as part of Operation Southern Spear, the Trump administration’s name for its military effort to confront the Venezuelan narcotics traffickers and cartel terrorists.
Multiple arrests of reported TdA members have now been reported in Tennessee, with the most recent occurring in October, when the Memphis Safe Task Force said one of the Venezuelan gang members was among the first 100 arrested during its deployment.
Recent human trafficking allegations involving Venezuelan citizens in New York also shared similarities with the cases against alleged TdA members in two Tennessee cities.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
