NEW YORK, NY – Federal prosecutors have unsealed a sweeping indictment charging 27 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang faction known as Anti-Tren with a violent trail of murders, kidnappings, and sex trafficking across multiple U.S. states—including a grisly 2024 double murder in the Bronx.
The case, announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York, targets a splinter group of the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua, a syndicate that grew from Venezuelan prisons into a sprawling transnational criminal network. The 38-count indictment accuses the Anti-Tren faction of racketeering, murder-for-hire, sex trafficking, drug smuggling, and kidnapping, among other charges.
Prosecutors say the gang used extreme violence and coercion to dominate territories in the Bronx, Queens, and New Jersey, trafficking young Venezuelan women into the U.S. and forcing them into sex work through threats, beatings, and kidnappings. In one 2024 case, gang members allegedly murdered two men—Jhombeyker Jose Bisbal Pina and Adrian Mendoza Isturiz—in a Bronx street ambush meant to consolidate control over local trafficking and drug operations.
“Tren de Aragua is in the business of murder, sex trafficking, and intimidation—and they brought that business to New York,” Clayton said. “We will bankrupt their network and bring every one of their members to justice.”
Terror-linked gang expanding across U.S. cities
Federal authorities allege Anti-Tren operated as a fully structured enterprise, enforcing control through executions, public beatings, and internal punishments. Some members, investigators said, shot or maimed fellow gang members as discipline for disobedience. Others arranged murders in New York and Florida to protect criminal profits.
The organization, prosecutors added, funded its activities through narcotics and human smuggling, charging victims “debts” that could only be repaid through forced prostitution. Victims who resisted were tracked, beaten, or killed.
- 27 alleged members of Anti-Tren charged in 38-count federal indictment
- Crimes include Bronx double murder, sex trafficking, kidnapping, and extortion
- Faction linked to Venezuelan terror group Tren de Aragua operating in U.S.
The indictment marks one of the largest federal crackdowns on Tren de Aragua activity in the U.S., following investigations across several states by Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, DEA, and local police. Officials said 21 of the defendants were previously charged, while six new suspects have been added—five now in federal custody.
“This is a terrorist organization masquerading as a street gang,” said Joint Task Force Vulcan co-director Christopher Eason. “From prison cells in Venezuela to neighborhoods in New York, they brought fear and violence with them—and we intend to end it.”
