The landmark case is the first time the Justice Department has indicted an alleged member of the Tren de Aragua gang on terrorism charges.
The Department of Justice on April 23 added terrorism-related charges to the criminal case against an alleged high-ranking member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
In a newly unsealed indictment against Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, the Justice Department is pursuing terrorism charges against an alleged member of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang for the first time.
The State Department
designated the Venezuelan gang as a foreign terrorist organization in February, and President Donald Trump
invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March, proclaiming members of the gang as “liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies” and “chargeable with actual hostility against the United States.”
Martinez Flores, 24, also known as “Chuqui,” was
charged with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to his indictment, which was filed in federal court in the Southern District of Texas. He was also charged with conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in Colombia, intended for distribution in the United States.
Colombian authorities arrested Martinez Flores in Colombia on March 31 after the United States requested a provisional warrant for his arrest. He is still in Colombian custody “pending further proceedings.”
A federal grand jury in Houston returned Martinez Flores’s superseding indictment on April 8. Federal authorities accuse him of being a “high-ranking” leader of Tren de Aragua in Bogota, Colombia, and also “part of the inner circle of senior [gang] leadership.”
Martinez Flores allegedly instigated the delivery of roughly five kilograms or more of cocaine for international distribution to fund Tren de Aragua’s “criminal goals,” according to the indictment.
He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine if convicted.
Attorney information for Martinez Flores was not immediately available.
“[Tren de Aragaua] is not a street gang—it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
“Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”
On April 21, the Justice Department brought conspiracy
charges against 27 alleged members and associates of Tren de Aragua for racketeering, sex trafficking, and drug trafficking, along with robbery and firearms offenses.
Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky for the Southern District of New York described the group’s criminal allegations.
“Today, we have filed charges against 27 alleged members, former members, and associates of Tren de Aragua, for committing murders and shootings, forcing young women trafficked from Venezuela into commercial sex work, robbing and extorting small businesses, and selling ‘tusi,’ a pink powdery drug that has become their calling card,” Podolsky said in a
statement.
Trump’s efforts to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members have spurred multiple court battles. On April 19, the Supreme Court
temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting an unspecified number of Venezuelan men currently in immigration custody who are alleged to be members of Tren de Aragua.
Matthew Vadum contributed to this report.
