Thirty individuals, among them purported members of the Tren de Aragua gang, face federal charges in Colorado encompassing drug trafficking, firearm violations, and murder-for-hire plots.

A covert operation that commenced around ten months prior led to the confiscation of 69 firearms and a variety of drugs, such as fentanyl, “pink cocaine,” and methamphetamine, as per indictments from the U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado.

Prosecutors claim, “Numerous firearms are associated with incidents in Denver and Aurora, including carjackings, robberies, and drive-by shootings.”

Nearly all 28 of the defendants are in the U.S., though four are not yet in custody.

Two others, Luis Fernando Uribe-Torrealba and Luis Henriquez-Charaima, both 29, are in federal custody in Colombia.

One suspect, a Venezuelan national, allegedly boasted to undercover agents that the individuals executing crimes in viral videos from Colorado apartment complexes were those he intended to enlist for murder-for-hire schemes.

The attorney’s office claimed that several members of Tren de Aragua have unlawfully entered the U.S. and are connected to murder, kidnapping, extortion, along with human and drug trafficking, as reported by local affiliate KDVR.

2 alleged TdA members in Colombian custody

Henriquez-Charaima and Uribe-Torrealba reportedly entered the U.S. in 2023 aiming to expand synthetic drug trafficking, accumulating a weapons stockpile in Denver to smuggle arms across Latin America, according to Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, the mayor general for Colombia’s national police.

Last March, the pair allegedly fled to Colombia to “evade U.S. authorities.”

Colombian police say they’ve arrested 46 Tren de Aragua members, calling it part of a wider effort to dismantle the violent gang before it expands further in the United States.

What is Tren de Aragua?

Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that the Trump administration has designated a “foreign terrorist organization” and slapped with sanctions.

The Venezuela-based gang’s members have been charged with rape, murder, kidnapping and extortion, among others.

Tren de Aragua has been targeted by law enforcement over the duration of the last year.

Interestingly enough, not many wanted to admit the gang was present and an issue, something that the officials brought up in the news conference, saying talking about Tren de Aragua was taboo.