Spanish police arrest 13 people suspected of belonging to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang

MADRID AP Spanish police have arrested people suspected of belonging to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang government stated Friday The arrests were made in five cities in the first operation in Spain to dismantle a suspected cell of the Venezuelan prison gang which the U S leadership designated a foreign terrorist organization in February police stated in a comment The gang has become a key reference in the Trump administration s military strikes against suspected drug vessels in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean and in its domestic immigration crackdown As part of the operation Spanish police announced they also dismantled two laboratories used to make tusi a mixture of cocaine MDMA and ketamine and seized other synthetic drugs and cocaine The arrests followed an assessment Spanish police opened last year after the brother of Ni o Guerrero the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang was arrested in Barcelona under an international arrest warrant issued by Venezuelan bureaucrats police explained The Tren de Aragua gang originated in Venezuela more than a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in the central state of Aragua The gang has expanded in contemporary years as more than million Venezuelans fled economic turmoil and migrated to other Latin American countries the U S and Spain The Trump administration Friday stated yet another deadly U S strike on a boat executives disclosed was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea bringing the death toll from the administration s campaign in South American waters up to at least people in at least strikes U S President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by saying his country is in armed conflict with drug cartels such as the Tren de Aragua gang The arrests of the individuals took place in the Spanish cities of Barcelona Madrid Girona A Coru a and Valencia Source