Tren de Aragua Map & Profile 2026: Leaders, Territory and U.S. Charges

What official records and reporting say about the Tren de Aragua: who leads it, where it is reported to operate, and how the U.S. has targeted it. Territory and leadership change fast, so each item links to its source and shows dates as reported. Allegations are as stated by the source; people who are charged are presumed innocent until convicted.

All cartel profiles

Names and aliases

• The gang's name is Tren de Aragua, Spanish for the Train of Aragua. [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]
• U.S. agencies abbreviate the group as TdA in indictments, designations, and reward notices. [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• The name may come from a union of railroad workers building a train connection between Caracas and Aragua. [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]

Origins

• The gang was founded in 2014 inside the Tocorón prison in Venezuela's central Aragua state. [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]
• The founder and longtime leader is Héctor Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero. [Athens Times, 2026-06-12]
• The gang largely controlled Tocorón, running a zoo, swimming pool, disco, restaurant, and bar inside the prison while ordering robberies, kidnappings, and murders from behind bars. [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]
• In September 2023 the Maduro government deployed 11,000 troops to retake Tocorón, a move widely read as an attempt to reassert state control over the prison stronghold. [Athens Times, 2026-06-12]

Leadership

• Niño Guerrero was charged in a Manhattan federal court in December 2025 with ordering and directing terrorism and violence in the U.S.; in June 2026 President Trump announced U.S. forces had killed him in a strike on a gang compound in Venezuela. (as of 2026-06-13) [Euronews via mirror, 2026-06-13]
• Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, alias El Viejo, is described by the State Department as a TdA leader who orchestrates its global drug trafficking and financial operations; he is the first TdA member on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, with a reward of up to $5 million. (as of 2025-12-03) [U.S. Department of State via GlobalSecurity, 2025-12-03]
• Yohan Jose Romero, alias Johan Petrica, is charged as a TdA leader in a December 2025 Houston superseding indictment; the State Department offers up to $4 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction, and he remains a fugitive. (as of 2026-05-14) [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• Juan Gabriel Rivas Nunez, alias Juancho, is charged as a TdA leader in the same December 2025 Houston indictment and remains a fugitive. (as of 2026-05-14) [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• A TdA leader identified by DOJ by the surname Flores was extradited to face terrorism and international drug distribution charges; he allegedly oversaw drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and murder in Colombia, and faces up to life in prison and a $10 million fine if convicted. (as of 2026-05-14) [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center estimates the gang has between 2,500 and 5,000 members. (as of 2026-06-13) [Euronews via mirror, 2026-06-13]
• A TdA leader known as El Turco was captured in the U.S.; he had been deported to Venezuela in August 2023, reentered the United States, and was declared an alien enemy in March 2025 for extradition proceedings tied to crimes in Chile. (as of 2026-09-30) [Center for Immigration Studies]
• The same indictment charged Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, a.k.a. 'El Viejo,' 37, an alleged high-ranking TdA member; he remains a fugitive and is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. (as of 2025-04-23) [U.S. Department of Justice (S.D. Tex.), 2025-04-23]
• Treasury identifies Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, a.k.a. 'Prometheus,' an FBI Top Ten fugitive, as the engineer of the malware used in the ATM-jackpotting scheme. (as of 2025-08) [U.S. Department of the Treasury]
• A June 26, 2026 Justice Department release established TdA links for the network's associates, including Carlos Javier Martinez Armenta, who transacted with Hector 'Nino Guerrero' Guerrero Flores, described as now deceased. (as of 2026-06-26) [U.S. Department of the Treasury]

Factions and splits

• The NCTC describes Tren de Aragua as a transnational gang network rather than a single hierarchical cartel, with cells spread across Latin America and the United States. (as of 2026-06-13) [Euronews via mirror, 2026-06-13]
• As Venezuela's economy collapsed, the gang recruited new members from among the roughly 8 million Venezuelans who fled the country, seeding cells in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. (as of 2025-03-16) [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]

Allies and rivals

• The June 2026 U.S. strike that reportedly killed Niño Guerrero was carried out, according to the U.S. Secretary of War, in full collaboration with Venezuelan security forces. (as of 2026-06-13) [Euronews via mirror, 2026-06-13]
• Chile's attorney general and foreign minister alleged the 2024 kidnapping and murder of ex-Venezuelan officer Ronald Ojeda was carried out by TdA members and linked the crime to the Venezuelan government itself. (as of 2026-09-30) [Center for Immigration Studies]
• No established alliance between Tren de Aragua and a Mexican cartel was located in the sources consulted for this batch as of September 30, 2026. (as of 2026-09-30) [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]

What it does

• The gang is involved in international cocaine trafficking; Mosquera Serrano was indicted in Texas in January 2025 and reindicted in April 2025 on cocaine conspiracy and material support to an FTO. [U.S. Department of State via GlobalSecurity, 2025-12-03]
• Its activities evolved from migrant extortion into human trafficking for sexual exploitation, contract killings, and kidnappings across Latin America. [Athens Times, 2026-06-12]
• In Colombia, Peru, and Chile the gang smuggled drugs and people and ran extortion rackets and prostitution rings. [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]
• The NCTC attributes kidnappings, extortion, human and drug trafficking, and public displays of violence to the gang. [Euronews via mirror, 2026-06-13]
• The gang's most notorious alleged crime is the 2024 killing of Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan army officer who had fled to Chile; two TdA members have been arrested in the case. [NPR via WHRO, 2025-03-16]
• The gang laundered money through front businesses including zoos, restaurants, and amusement parks. [Testbook, 2026-09-23]
• Treasury sanctioned 10 targets in a TdA ATM-jackpotting network responsible for $40.73 million across more than 1,500 attacks as of August 2025; 98 individuals have been indicted in the U.S. District of Nebraska since October 21, 2025. [U.S. Department of the Treasury]

U.S. designations, sanctions and charges

• On February 20, 2025, the U.S. Secretary of State designated Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• On June 24, 2025, OFAC sanctioned Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano. [U.S. Department of State via GlobalSecurity, 2025-12-03]
• On December 3, 2025, OFAC also sanctioned 11 targets affiliated with TdA's narco-terrorist networks. [U.S. Department of State via GlobalSecurity, 2025-12-03]
• The State Department's Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program offers up to $5 million for Mosquera Serrano and up to $4 million for Yohan Jose Romero. [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• On March 11, 2025, the U.S. president issued Proclamation 10903 invoking the Alien Enemies Act regarding what it called an invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua. [Center for Immigration Studies]
• Treasury sanctioned Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization on July 11, 2024, and the State Department designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization on February 20, 2025. [U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2024-07-11]

Key events

• In August 2025 the Justice Department charged 30 people affiliated with TdA in Colorado with drug and gun crimes and murder for hire, though NPR found many affidavits described older cases repackaged under the gang banner. [NPR via Colorado Public Radio, 2025-08-20]
• On December 16, 2025, a Houston federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment charging Flores, Romero, Rivas Nunez, and Mosquera Serrano with material support to TdA and cocaine conspiracy. [U.S. Department of Justice, 2026-05-14]
• In June 2026 President Trump announced that U.S. Southern Command had conducted a lethal strike on a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela, killing leader Héctor Guerrero Flores. [Euronews via mirror, 2026-06-13]
• In February 2024, Ronald Ojeda, a former Venezuelan army officer living in exile in Chile, was kidnapped from his Santiago apartment by men posing as Chilean police and later found murdered. [Center for Immigration Studies]
• In 2024, surveillance footage of armed men entering Aurora, Colorado apartment buildings went viral; the mayor said the gang had infiltrated buildings while the police department called the reports isolated. [Wikipedia]
• On January 25, 2025, federal and local authorities raided an illegal nightclub in Adams County, Colorado, arresting 41 people and seizing drugs, weapons, and cash after a months-long DEA investigation of TdA activity. [Wikipedia]
• On April 26, 2025, a raid on an illegal nightclub outside Colorado Springs arrested over 100 people amid reported prostitution, drug trafficking, and the presence of Tren de Aragua and MS-13 members, plus more than a dozen active-duty U.S. military members. [Wikipedia]
• On April 23, 2025, the Justice Department's Southern District of Texas unsealed a five-count superseding indictment charging Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, a.k.a. 'Chuqui,' 24, with conspiring to provide and providing material support to Tren de Aragua as a designated foreign terrorist organization, plus cocaine conspiracy and distribution in Colombia intended for the United States; he was arrested in Colombia on March 31, 2025. [U.S. Department of Justice (S.D. Tex.), 2025-04-23]
• On December 18, 2025, the Justice Department announced more than 70 TdA members and associates indicted across five U.S. Attorney's Offices (Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, SDNY, SDTX), with more than 260 TdA members indicted since January 20, 2025. [U.S. Department of Justice, 2025-12-18]

Where it operates in Mexico

• Consulted sources describe TdA's footprint as Venezuela plus Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, and the United States; no Mexico-specific presence was located in these sources. (as of 2026-09-30) [Testbook, 2026-09-23]

Reported U.S. footprint

• The gang has been linked to criminal activity in New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. (as of 2026-09-23) [Testbook, 2026-09-23]

Reported presence by Mexican state

Tren de Aragua in the United States

States with specific evidence: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Cartels in the U.S.: map and state-by-state evidence →

Last reviewed: September 30, 2026. Territory, leadership and advisories change; tell us about errors via our corrections page.