Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Director David Rausch said the Tren de Aragua gang members active in Tennessee are likely part of the criminal network that formed in Venezuelan prisons under the country’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro, whose government later claimed the prisoners escaped.
Rausch made the comments to U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) during a appearance last week in her “Minute with Marsha” podcast, expanding on his previous confirmations that Tren de Aragua members are present in Tennessee’s major cities and travel through the state in human trafficking operations.
“People got upset about that, they immediately went to thinking, ‘This is TDA that’s taking over apartment complexes like we’ve seen in other cities,'” said Rausch. He told Blackburn, “We’re not there yet, but we don’t want to get there.”
The TBI director explained the group began in Venezuelan prisons, where the government ultimately allowed the gang members “to actually run tee prisons,” leading to the formation of a “criminal network.”
Rausch explained, “The government, ultimately, embarrassed by what was going on, went in to take the prisons back, and they claim they all escaped when they went in to take the prisons back. Now we know where they’ve escaped to, most of them have transferred to other countries.”
The director said that the exodus from Venezuelan prisons is not limited to the United States, telling Blackburn, “they’re in various other countries as well, and doing the same thing.”
He explained that Tren de Aragua remains in its human trafficking “phase” but warned the group will “take root” if they find a specific region to be productive.
“Then they start the next phase, that is the retail theft. After they do that, then they move into the drug trade, and they actually take on the cartels at that point,” said Rausch, who said that intelligence sources say that is when the gang begins “to show their true violent nature.”
Rausch told Blackburn, “They executed a cartel member on video, on social media, shooting the individual 31 times, in midday on a busy street, so that’s the level of violence that they get to and that’s what we don’t want to happen here in Tennessee.”
TBI recently confirmed the arrest of a 30-year-old Tren de Aragua member in Chattanooga as the result of a joint investigation between the state agency, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Chattooga Police Department, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Watch Blackburn’s full interview with Rausch:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marsha Blackburn and David Rausch” by Senator Marsha Blackburn.
