By The Denver Gazette staff | Denver Gazette Via Colorado Politics
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confirmed on Monday that it regards Colorado as “ground zero” for “some of the most violent criminals in America” and the “command center” of a transnational gang that originated in the prisons of Venezuela.
“We are learning that the command and control for TdA in the entire United States of America is right here in Colorado,” Derek Maltz, the acting director of the DEA, said in a Denver7 report.
Maltz was referring to Tren de Aragua, a gang that started in Tocorón Penitentiary Center in Aragua, a state in north-central Venezuela. TdA has expanded the footprint of its criminal enterprises into at least eight Latin American countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Chile.
It’s unclear when TdA was first discovered in the U.S., but it is believed that gang members embedded themselves with immigrants fleeing the political and economic collapse in Venezuela. Nearly eight million Venezuelans have already fled their country under President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, with more than 500,000 estimated to be living in the U.S.