Colorado Politics

FBI offers $3M for capture of TdA gang leader on 10 Most Wanted List

Federal authorities have added a man alleged to be a leader of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang to the FBI’s 10 most wanted list, offering a $3 million award for the fugitive’s capture.

Officials believe TdA gang leader Giovanni Vicente “El Viejo” Mosquera Serrano, 37, has fled to Venezuela or Colombia, said Connor Hagan, a spokesperson with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Houston.

Hagan said that while charged federally, it is not confirmed that Serrano has ever been in the United States.

In April, a federal grand jury in Houston returned a superseding indictment, which has now been unsealed. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday the criminal indictment against Serrano, charging him with conspiring to distribute cocaine internationally and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

The Trump administration designed TdA, which has been operating in metro Denver, a foreign terrorist organization in February.

“TdA remains focused on terrorizing our communities and facilitating the flow of illicit narcotics into our country, relying on key leaders like Mosquera Serrano to finance and oversee their violent operations,” Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“Treasury, in close coordination with our partners in U.S. law enforcement, will continue to use all available tools to disrupt the group’s criminal enterprise and Make America Safe Again.”

Once a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, TdA has expanded its tentacles into the western hemisphere, including the Denver metro region, where local law enforcement has arrested gang members for various crimes. Its criminal footprint extends into at least eight American countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Chile.

The organization has an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 members, according to Ronna Rísquez, a Venezuelan investigative journalist.

Rísquez — who has covered organized crime in South America for more than two decades — wrote “El Tren de Aragua: La banda que revolucionó el crimen organizado en América Latina” (The Tren de Aragua: The gang that revolutionized organized crime in Latin America).

Authorities have said TdA gang members have been involved in a myriad of criminal activities that include drug trafficking, kidnapping, money laundering, extortion and human trafficking — particularly of immigrant women and girls.

The city of Aurora nabbed national headlines last year for its handling of the gang, which had taken over three apartment complexes.

These complexes have had a history of health and safety issues that included rodent infestations, sewage backups and trash pileups, shattered or missing windows and a lack of heat and electricity.

Mosquera Serrano is accused of overseeing TdA’s narcotics trafficking efforts and murders on behalf of TdA in Colombia, according to the FBI.

TdA operatives embedded themselves with immigrants fleeing the economic and political chaos in Venezuela, using social media platforms — particularly WhatsApp — to coordinate the gang’s extortion, smuggling and violence.

They arrived in waves with the more than 40,000 immigrants who sought refuge in Denver. Plane, train and bus tickets for immigrants to travel elsewhere suggest about half have stayed in Colorado.

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