The Aragua Train is the largest and most powerful criminal organization in Venezuela. It represents the first criminal group of Venezuelan origin to have managed to expand its activities to other Latin American countries. He is identified with the term "megaband," because it is made up of an army of more than 4,000 men, has weapons of war and has a defined, clear and solid hierarchical structure, according to an investigation published in 2021.
The band was born under the name of Aragua Train between 2013 and 2015, but operated from a short time before. It originates from the workers' unions working on the construction of a railway project that would connect the centre-west of the country and never completed.
By then Héctor Rutherford Guerrero Flores, alias "Child Guerrero," was the pran of the Aragua Prison, better known as Tocorón prison. Although the criminal organization emerged out of jail, the prison quickly became its base of operations.
Its creators were Johan José Romero, alias "Johan Petrica," who now operates from the mines of the state Bolivar and José Gabriel Álvarez Rojas, alias Chino Pradera, who died in a confrontation with the police in 2016.
Carolina Girón, director of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, explained that the multiple humanization plans for prisons, created by Tareck El Aissami, Minister of Internal Relations (2008-2012) and then governor of Aragua (2012-2017), only served to give control of prisons to prisoners, with the excuse of preventing violence.
By 2010, it was considered that there was already pranato in Tocorón. There are photographs that show that it was that year when the construction of some areas of the prison began and with this it was formed what would later be The Aragua Train.
According to the reports collected, in 2015 the Aragua Train stole 70 vehicles per week, of which at least 20 were motorcycles and the payments or searches for them were made within the prison.
That same year, Tocorón was described by relatives of detainees as a paradise, a place where children could enjoy the pool and animals, the adults of the Tokyo Discotter spaces and, in addition, could buy food and even enjoy sporting events.
Over the years, the Aragua Train began to expand to other municipalities, until it became present in 13 states of Venezuela. This process, which began in 2016, was made possible by the support of several criminal gangs. A short time later, it began expansion to other countries in the region. They are currently in at least seven nations.
The band has a large number of satellite groups inside and outside the country, making it difficult to calculate the number of members it has. However, the Brazilian government said that in that country alone there are 740 men. According to some media reports, since 2021, the Aragua Train has a war with ELN members in Venezuela over control of the border with Colombia.
Structure and leaders
The structure of this criminal organization is similar to that of other Venezuelan prisons governed by criminal leaders. There is a pran or main, who is the boss; several pranes or lieutenants, who are like the ministers of the pran; luceros of the discharge, who are the closest to the pran and luceros of the descent, who are closer to the penal population; there is also a new category that are the shields, whose function is to protect the pran and finally there are the gariteros or those who watch.
There is no precise information about the number of lieutenants on whom the Aragua Train has, but there are versions that indicate that in the prison it has at least 12. Some are the minds behind the crime in the municipalities, states and countries where the group operates.
The Aragua Train works with several bands in the streets and each dominates its territory. Criminal organizations have a leader or pran that responds to an alias. Guerrero Child. In the regions there is a representative of the Aragua Train who wears the baton, but everyone knows that their main leader is the pran of Tocorón.
Outside the prison, the gang has people who work as informants. In addition, it has allies who allegedly charge extortion, through the Somos neighborhood J.K. Foundation, created in the San Vicente neighborhood of the municipality of Girardot of the state of Aragua for that purpose. They also use children ranging from 8 to 12 years of age as messengers. Among its members are women who perform different roles. The foundation is led by a woman named Irene Hernandez, who indicated that there were at least 200 members and, in addition, the community's 66 Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) are responsible for distributing the food in the area.
The leader of the Aragua Train in San Vicente is a criminal nicknamed the Flipper who runs the area.
The Aragua Train has people at border crossings to care for shipments of drugs, gold, weapons and scrap. Its function is to act en masse as a custodian of the merchandise, to infuse terror in the areas where criminal action is carried out so that no one comes close and, in some cases, to free the road of obstacles, said a specialist who studies with members of gang-led communities.
Excerpt translated from
Comments