The TBI says the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang is in Tennessee. What we know

On November 25, 2024By Littum

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is warning residents of the presence of a violent Venezuelan street gang called the Tren de Aragua.

TBI Director David Rausch said intelligence gathered by the agency indicates the gang is in Tennessee after it was previously believed to be gone following previous arrests.

“I don’t think we’re at the point where everybody has to see outside their homes of this infiltration,” Rausch said in a video posted on the department’s YouTube page. “It’s a level of concern for law enforcement that this group is active. They’re in Tennessee.”

The goal, Rausch said, is to stop the gang in its tracks so they don’t disperse their criminal syndicate before it escalates into a turf war against drug cartels for control of the drug trade in Tennessee.

There have been no reports of gang activity in Nashville or surrounding Middle Tennessee counties.

The Metro Nashville Police Department and Franklin Police both say they have not reported arrests of Tren de Aragua members.

“This police department is well aware of Tren de Aragua and the criminal activity associated with its members. We have a heightened awareness of any such activity seen here,” MNPD said in an emailed statement.

Rausch said the gang is not unique to Tennessee. He said the gang has a national presence and is quickly becoming a national concern.

In September, rumors spread that Tren de Aragua was operating an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NewsNation that men seen in a video were members of the Venezuelan gang.

In a post on Xformerly known as Twitter, the city confirmed a “small presence of the Tren de Aragua gang in Aurora.

President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly rejected claims during an Oct. 11 rally in Aurora that the city has become a “war zone” overrun with violent Venezuelan gang members.

Tennessee is no stranger to human trafficking either.

In November 2010, 29 people were indicted in the Middle District of Tennessee following a multi-agency investigation into a Somali gang.

In 2021, Governor Bill Lee and Tennessee lawmakers devoted additional resources and man-hours to curbing human trafficking, with a total of nine agents assigned to each of TBI’s regions.

Tennessee has seen an increase in human trafficking calls and tips, recording 245 in 2016 to a projected 1,375 in 2023.

Most of the tips in 2023, 361, came from the state’s middle district. There were 307 in the Upper Eastern District, 265 in the Western and 183 in the Eastern District. The most popular form of human trafficking in Tennessee involved minors, data show. And 101 arrests were made through various police operations, the 2023 report said.

“A lot of these law enforcement officials and police officials, they haven’t seen what we know is there, and that’s because of the complexity of intelligence gathering,” Rausch said. “We at TBI are the lead human trafficking agency in the state of Tennessee, so many of our operations are involved with these types of individuals.”

Rausch also noted that the group is violent toward police.

USA TODAY contributed to this story.

Reach reporter Craig Shoup via email at [email protected] and at X @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription at www.tennessean.com.

This story was updated to add a video.