El Paso on high alert as dangerous Venezuelan gang described as 'MS-13 on steroids' surges into US
The Mexican border state of Chihuahua is on alert for members of a violent Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, or TdA, after receiving reports that members of the gang were moving through the state to cross into the U.S. near El Paso, Texas.
Chihuahua Secretary of Public Safety Gilberto Loya warned Monday that Mexican authorities have seen a large number of individuals they believe are members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TdA, operating in the state and passing through to cross the U.S. border with Mexico near El Paso, according to a report from the Latin Times.
The report comes after the Treasury Department in July sanctioned TdA as a transnational criminal organization, noting that the gang has committed human trafficking, extortion, money laundering and drug trafficking that pose a "deadly criminal threat" across the Western Hemisphere.
"Tren de Aragua leverages its transnational networks to traffic people, especially migrant women and girls, across borders for sex trafficking and debt bondage," the Treasury Department said in a statement at the time. "Tren de Aragua members often kill them and publicize their deaths as a threat to others."
U.S. officials warned earlier this month that the gang, which originated in Aragua, Venezuela, is infiltrating the United States, while Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas., has described TdA as "MS-13 on steroids."
"They're extremely aggressive. It's not as if they're a passive group, or they want to quietly go about things," Gonzales said in a phone interview with Fox News Digital earlier this month. "They're coming from Venezuela, one of the most war-torn countries over the last decade. So, they're battle-hardened in many ways. And they've made this trek from there to here. But they are also becoming … more organized and more brazen."
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Members of the gang are suspected of being behind a recent video that captured a group of men armed with handguns and rifles bursting through the doors of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, that residents say has been overrun by gang activity.
"This is organized. They patrol the property with guns visibly, like they're not trying to hide them. There's no repercussion. These are ghosts," said one resident who spoke with Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity.
The gang has been seen dealing drugs from the apartment building, another resident told Fox News Digital, while Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky told Fox News Digital that "without a doubt that there is sex trafficking now going on" when it comes to TdA’s activities in the city.
In Mexico, Loya said that the group has been responsible for multiple homicides in Central Mexico and that it is his hope the border state can get out in front of the problem.
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"We have detected – thanks to collaboration with the United States – that a large number of people who belong to Tren de Aragua have passed through Chihuahua," Loya said, according to a translation by Border Report. "Seeing what is going on in (Central Mexico), we want to be ahead of the curve here in Chihuahua."
Neither the White House nor U.S. Customs and Border Patrol immediately responded to Fox News Digital requests for comment.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.