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MANHATTAN (CN) — A joint task force of federal law enforcement agencies on Thursday morning announced the unsealing of a criminal indictment against an accused leader of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as Niño Guerrero, “has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization that committed countless acts of violence, extortion, and drug trafficking all over North America, South America, and Europe,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton wrote in an announcement of the unsealed grand jury indictment on Thursday.
“As the leader of Tren de Aragua, while operating from Venezuela and elsewhere, Guerrero Flores ordered, directed, facilitated, and supported acts of violence and terrorism transcending national boundaries, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and maiming against victims located inside and outside the United States,” federal prosecutors say in the indictment.
Guerrero, who also goes by “El Cejón,” (big eyebrows) and “El Innombrable” (meaning the unnamable), operated Tren de Aragua like a multinational crime syndicate — laundering money through cryptocurrency, trafficking tons of cocaine, selling weapons of war and orchestrating acts of terror across borders, DEA Special Agent in Charge Louis A. D’Ambrosio said in a statement.
“He ran this empire from prison, shielded by corruption, and in collaboration with a narco-state cartel intent on flooding the United States with cocaine,” D’Ambrosio said. “This case exemplifies today’s threat: criminal organizations that function like terrorists and terrorize like insurgents. DEA and our partners are dismantling them piece by piece — targeting their leadership, finances, weapons, and networks.”
The four-count indictment accuses Guerrero of a two-decade racketeering conspiracy from at least in or about 2005 through at least in or about 2025, in addition to terrorism, drug, and gun charges.
The gang originated in the Venezuelan state of Aragua in the mid-2000s, and used the Tocorón Prison in Aragua as a center of operations to orchestrate and conduct criminal activities.
Federal prosecutors link members and associates of Tren de Aragua’s international gang operations with the Cártel de los Soles, or “Cartel of the Suns,” described in the indictment as largest cocaine trafficking organizations in the world,
Guerrero has not been arrested and remains at large.
The U.S. Department of State is offering rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Guerrero. The reward offers are in support of the FBI’s joint effort with the Colombian National Police to target leaders of Tren de Aragua.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr., a Barack Obama appointee.
The indictment comes as the Trump administration has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela and drawn international scrutiny for an escalation of missile strikes on purported narcotrafficking boats.
This year, the Justice Department charged nearly two dozen suspected Tren de Aragua members, including Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, who authorities said was part of a group of men who entered an apartment in Aurora, Colorado, and were recorded on a widely viewed video.
Shortly after videos circulated on TikTok in August 2024 depicting men with guns storming the apartment complex in the Denver suburb, local law enforcement joined forces with federal agencies including the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
While running for a second term in office, President Donald Trump amplified the claim that the international gang had taken over Aurora, using the city of 400,000 to catalyze a campaign promise to crack down on immigration. To follow through with the pledge, Trump has used both the Justice Department and executive order, invoking the gang’s name to use the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track deportations of Venezuelan nationals.
Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, was arrested in the Bronx this past January by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations officers, as part of the Trump administration’s first promised immigration raids in New York City.
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