Criminal Gang Aragua Train Dismantled in Venezuela

The Venezuelan Minister of Interior Remigio Ceballos, informed on Saturday the dismantling of the criminal gang, with international extension, El Tren de Aragua, which operated from the Tocorón prison, located in the central state of Aragua.

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The Tocorón prison was raided in recent days with the deployment of 11,000 troops as part of Operation Gran Cacique Guaicaipuro.

From the prison, the minister said to the press, "We have totally dismantled the self-styled Tren de Aragua, we have 88 people arrested at this moment, providing very important data of criminal interest."

The criminal organization was dedicated to committing all kinds of crimes, including kidnapping, drug trafficking, human trafficking, homicides, contract killings and extortion, the minister said. 

According to Ceballos, the criminal group was linked "to a whole conspiratorial, destabilizing strategy of violent political groups that sought to use crime to achieve their objectives."

The tweet reads, "The dangerous gang known as the Aragua Train has been totally dismantled, thanks to the deployment of Operation Gran Cacique Guaicaipuro, which began last Wednesday in the Tocorón Penitentiary Center, Aragua State, informed Minister Remigio Ceballos."

Ceballos assured that with this measure, the State has been able to guarantee peace and tranquility in the central region. He indicated that the government is coordinating diplomatic conversations to capture those who may leave the country.

The Operation Gran Cacique Guaicaipuro, as the intervention action was called, is now in its second phase, which includes the recapture of the prisoners who escaped from Tocorón.

Work is currently underway on the destruction and dismantling of all the structures that were in the penitentiary center, said the minister. Subsequently, a process of complete transformation and reorganization of the penitentiary center will begin.

Ceballos said that there were 1,600 prisoners in Tocorón, who have been transferred to different penitentiaries, while investigations are being carried out against some officials complicit in the irregularities in that prison.

On the occasion, Ceballos noted that these operations are carried out as part of "a great plan for the transformation of the penitentiary system, which is not improvised, it is public policy, of citizen security, which is called Gran Misión Cuadrantes de Paz."