A BLOODTHIRSTY Venezuelan gang has been flooding British holiday hotspots with pink cocaine, The Sun can reveal.
US president Donald Trump made the powerful Tren de Aragua gang one of his country’s top enemies – and has ordered air strikes on drug boats operated by the narcoterrorists in international waters.
Tren de Aragua – a prison gang turned criminal organisation – has been behind brazen attacks, with ruthless leaders ordering robberies, kidnappings and murders.
Its influence has spread from Venezuela – and it believed to have nodes in at least eight other countries.
Police in Madrid announced last week they had smashed the powerful gang’s first cell in Spain as it seeks to gain a foothold in Europe after wreaking havoc across South America.
On Wednesday, detectives who helped take down the “embryonic” group in Britain’s favourite summer destination confirmed drugs peddled by members of the gang were being sold in the areas UK tourists flock to.
WAR FEARS
Venezuela orders ‘massive mobilisation’ of military after US warship arrives
SHIP OF STEEL
Trump moves aircraft carrier to Venezuela as Maduro plots guerrilla war
More than 100 Spanish cops were involved in the arrests of 13 suspects.
The raids led to the seizure of marihuana, cocaine and Tusi – a dangerous mix of ketamine with ecstasy or speed better known as pink cocaine.
It’s popular with partying British tourists in places like Ibiza.
A Madrid-based police chief involved in Operation Interciti told The Sun: “I can’t say exactly where the drugs were being sold because it’s very important information we need to keep to ourselves for future investigations.
“But for sure it was happening in the areas British holidaymakers go to.
“UK tourists will have consumed drugs sold by Tren de Aragua gang members, that’s a certainty.
“We were always expecting Spain to be the first country in Europe this criminal organisation would try to establish itself in.
“Almost one million Venezuelans are living here and logically they’re the first this gang are going to seek out.
“They can camouflage themselves among their own nationality but also so they can extort money from them because their compatriots are very well aware of what Tren de Aragua is and the fear they instil in people, and they can use them as foot soldiers.
“We have no evidence pointing to them being anywhere else in Europe at the moment – but we know they will try to recover from this setback for them because it’s happened in the other places they operate.
“We’ve smashed this cell but others will appear to take their place and inherit their role and that’s why we’re already planning our next moves.”
Operation Interciti was activated following the arrest last year in Barcelona of the brother of the shadowy fugitive Tren de Aragua leader known as Nino Guerrero or Boy Warrior.
The investigation which led to the dismantling of Spain and Europe’s first Tren de Aragua cell was led by a specialist Spanish National Police counter-terrorism unit – with the co-operation of special anti-drug prosecutors.
A high-ranking member of the elite police unit told The Sun: “This unit was set up principally to help combat terrorism and threats from the likes of ETA and Islamic extremists.
“But we also focus on groups that threaten internal stability and national security and transnational criminal organisations like Tren de Aragua are certainly one of those.
“The fact we’ve led this investigation shows the capacity they have to destabilise institutions in the countries where they’ve gained footholds already.
“Speaking to law enforcement agencies like the FBI they’ve impressed on us organisations like Tren de Aragua can’t be treated like normal organised criminal gangs.”
Painting a scary scenario of the violent gang war that would have erupted if their activities hadn’t been disrupted in Spain, he said: “We’ve taken them out at an embryonic stage before they managed to properly establish themselves here.
“We were in the stage when they were starting to penetrate after initially getting the lie of the land.
“The experience of other countries is that had they reached the consolidation stage here, they would have started engaging in armed violence and wars with other criminal gangs.
“The last phase would have involved permeating public institutions through corruption, extortion and threats.”
The four alleged leaders of the two sub-groups said to form part of the first Tren de Aragua cell smashed in Spain, have been remanded in prison pending an ongoing criminal court investigation.
They are all Venezuelans in their twenties and thirties held in Madrid and Barcelona.
On Wednesday, in a new sign of the gang’s increased presence in the Brit-popular holiday destination, Spanish cops announced the arrest of a fugitive member wanted by Chile after escaping a huge anti-money laundering operation.
The unnamed woman, now facing extradition to South America, was tracked down to a hideout in Molina de Segura near Murcia, a little over an hour’s drive from Benidorm.
Police and public prosecutors in Chile revealed in June they had arrested 52 people and frozen 250 bank accounts after a months-long operation against a Tren de Aragua faction.
It was allegedly devoted to laundering proceeds of crimes, including people trafficking, murders, kidnap, drug trafficking and extortion.
Spanish police told The Sun after the arrest: “This woman had an Interpol Red Notice out for her.
“The Chilean authorities say she abandoned the country after the operation against Tren de Aragua members.
“She’s accused of facilitating bank accounts and bank cards where she received dirty money she subsequently transferred to one of the criminal organisation’s front firms.
“The money transfers total around $138million.”
Tren de Aragua was founded in 2014 in Tocoron prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua – just 80 miles from the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
It was home to a golf course, zoo, bars, restaurants and swimming pools until just two years ago.
Dubbed a Las Vegas-style resort controlled by inmates, the government sent 11,000 soldiers to storm the facility and regain control in September 2023 and its still-at-large leader fled.
Venezuelan journalist Ronna Risquez, who received death threats before publishing a book about the gang two years ago, says it has expanded its portfolio to around 20 different criminal activities – incorporating even illegal mining and online gambling since its creation just over a decade ago.
Gang members use harder-to-trace cryptocurrency to launder their ill-gotten gains – with experts saying they have cloned the strategy of groups like the feared Sinaloa Cartel – as well as more classic front businesses such as restaurants.
In Mexico, alleged high-ranking Tren de Aragua member, Nelson Arturo Echezuria Alcantara, and his two right-hand men were captured by the government.
David Saucedo, a security specialist in Mexico, said: “They have evolved now to a point where they are almost operating as companies who’ll do whatever it takes to pay their employees’ salaries and bribes to local authorities.
“Unfortunately, the seizures, arrests, drug shipments intercepted, and account freezes carried out don’t really have a significant impact on criminal groups.
TRAGIC PLUNGE
Boy, 2, dies in horror 20-storey fall from apartment window
what a WHOPPER
I gave birth naturally to a ONE STONE baby… he’s set to be shock height
“Gangs like Tren de Aragua factor into their calculations as assumed loss due to law enforcement action.
“They take it for granted there will be a percentage of confiscation.”
Trump’s war on drugs
DONALD Trump is enforcing a war on drugs – with Venezuela in the firing line.
At least 19 boats have been blasted by the US military since September – killing 76 people.
Authorities say the vessels struck were transporting drugs from Venezuela and Colombia to the US.
Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, said: “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.”
It comes as the US builds up a force of warships, bombers, fighter jets, drones and more in the Caribbean Sea.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, carrying more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of strike aircraft, entered the US Southern Command zone in Latin American waters this week.
The move is the largest US military deployment in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama.
Pentagon officials confirmed the Gerald R. Ford strike group’s arrival, describing it as part of a campaign to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities” across the Caribbean.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the carrier “will bolster US capacity to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organisations.”
The carrier’s arrival follows Trump’s vow to expand his “war on drugs,” which has already included deadly airstrikes on boats suspected of smuggling cocaine.
Washington accuses the Venezuelan regime, led by Maduro and his top aides, of flooding drugs inside the American territory.
Trump also warned dictator Maduro’s “days are numbered” as he vowed “the land is going to be next,” earlier this month.
In response, Maduro said Trump is trying to drive him out of power.
Washington remains adamant that is not yet planning strikes inside Venezuela despite the strong rhetoric and military build-up.
But former defence intelligence agent Phillip Ingram has now revealed to The Sun the ways in which Trump could pull off an invasion.