Pilar Lizana is consulted by InsightCrime about imitators of the Tren de Aragua in Peru

The Tren de Aragua brand incites imitators outside of Venezuela

A series of arrests in the Andes targeting extortionists posing as members of the Tren de Aragua demonstrate that the growing notoriety of the Venezuelan megaband and its decentralized structure encourage imitators to appropriate the brand.

Peruvian police arrested a group of extortionists who claimed to be members of the Tren de Aragua in the threatening messages they sent to their victims via WhatsApp, according to reported the outlet Perú 21 in a note dated August 31.

The group, which operated in the city of San Juan de Lurigancho, on the outskirts of Lima, allegedly demanded over $800 per month from a local transportation company. When the company president refused to pay, the group detonated an explosive at his home, the report stated. Several calls and messages to the National Police of Peru requesting confirmation of the arrests went unanswered.

Groups that use the Tren de Aragua brand to commit crimes follow a pattern of similar actions throughout the region, corresponding to the rise of the criminal group as a regional power.

On the border between Colombia and Ecuador, a fake cell of the Tren de Aragua harassed Venezuelan migrants, local security officials reported to InSight Crime in February. Authorities did not believe the cell had any connection to the Tren de Aragua, but rather used the gang’s name to intimidate the Venezuelan community.

Criminal groups using the name Tren de Aragua began to gain more notoriety in Santiago, Chile, last year, according to Pilar Lizana, a researcher at the Chilean policy think tank AthenaLab, which has extensively studied the Tren de Aragua.

“What was happening [in Santiago] was that the name Tren de Aragua was being used because there was already a perception of fear regarding what the name and brand of the Tren de Aragua represented,” she explained to InSight Crime.

The Tren de Aragua has exploited the migration crisis in Venezuela to transition from a prison gang located in the Venezuelan state of Aragua to a transnational organization managing lucrative schemes of extortion, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and human smuggling throughout South America.

Analysis by InSight Crime

The Tren de Aragua brand is particularly attractive to foreign impostors, as the lack of information distorts the gang’s influence and authorities have difficulty tracking its legitimate members.

The reputation of the Tren de Aragua has spread throughout the region as it expands beyond Venezuela’s borders. However, perceptions of the threat posed by the gang often do not correspond to reality. The lack of information regarding Venezuelan migrants has fostered xenophobic attitudes that impostor groups have benefited from.

“Fear began to arise towards certain nationalities arriving due to the amount of communications being received in the media about the actions of the Tren de Aragua,” Lizana told InSight Crime, regarding the dynamics in Chile.

“That groups like the Tren de Aragua or other criminal organizations take advantage of a strong migratory phenomenon […] is very different from migration being the cause,” she added.

In addition to the widespread fear the group evokes, the difficulty in tracking official cells generates more confusion that imitators can exploit.

In interviews with InSight Crime, security officials from Colombia, Peru, and Chile pointed out the difficulty in confirming whether a group is part of the Tren de Aragua. However, on multiple occasions, the same officials used the name Tren de Aragua to refer to groups suspected of being affiliated with the gang, despite not having confirmed such suspicions.

Source: InsightCrime