Trump Admin Places Sanctions on Leader of Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua

New sanctions announced Thursday target Tren de Aragua’s leader, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, and five others.

Salvadoran prison guards escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in a handout image obtained on March 31, 2025. Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via Reuters

The U.S. Department of the Treasury on July 17 said it placed sanctions on the leader of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and five other members.

The sanctions target Tren de Aragua’s leader, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as “Niño Guerrero,” and five others who are considered key leaders and affiliates of the criminal gang, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement.

Earlier in 2025, Tren de Aragua, Salvadoran gang MS-13, and several significant Mexican drug cartels were designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the State Department, while the Treasury Department accused Tren de Aragua of engaging in activities that threaten “public safety throughout the Western Hemisphere.”

“The Trump Administration will not allow Tren de Aragua to continue to terrorize our communities and harm innocent Americans,“ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. ”In line with President Trump’s mandate to Make America Safe Again, Treasury remains dedicated to dismantling Tren de Aragua and disrupting the group’s campaign of violence.”

The department said all property and interests in property held by Guerrero inside the United States would be frozen. Entities with a majority stake held by other senior Tren de Aragua members, as well as Guerrero’s wife, Wendy Marbelys Rios Gomez, would also be blocked from carrying out transactions in the United States or with U.S. citizens.

The other high-ranking gang members who were sanctioned include Yohan Jose Romero, a close associate of Guerrero and cofounder of the gang who is accused of illegal mining operations in Venezuela, as well as Josue Angel Santana Pena, Wilmer Jose Perez Castillo, and Felix Anner Castillo Rondon. Pena is accused of having at one point helped direct Tren de Aragua from within a Venezuelan prison; Castillo is accused of being a leader of Tren de Aragua’s drug trafficking efforts; and Rondon has been implicated in homicides and human trafficking.

“These other [Tren de Aragua] leaders are involved in atrocious crimes such as illicit drug trade, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, extortion, sexual exploitation of women and children, and money laundering, among other activities,” the State Department said in a July 17 statement that announced the sanctions.

President Donald Trump has said Tren de Aragua is coordinating its U.S. activities with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro, and that this coordination is sufficient to justify deportations of illegal immigrants who are alleged to belong to the Venezuelan gang to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Venezuelan officials have denied that they are directing the Tren de Aragua gang. However, a report from the Human Rights Foundation in April accused the Maduro regime of using Tren de Aragua to “target and eliminate dissidents beyond Venezuela’s borders,” including a former Venezuelan army official who was killed in Chile in 2024.

The U.S. State Department in July 2024 issued a $5 million reward for information leading to Guerrero’s arrest and conviction.

In June, the Treasury Department announced that it had placed sanctions on Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, an alleged leader of Tren de Aragua, who was also placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list. Mosquera has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on drug trafficking and terrorism-related criminal activity, officials have said.

Reuters contributed to this report.