Alleged leader of Tren de Aragua, labeled as a terrorist group, charged in New York but on the lam

NEW YORK (AP) — An alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua gang labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization has been charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists among crimes that stretched more than a decade, authorities announced Thursday.

Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, a 42-year-old Venezuelan man, was the mastermind of the group’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a release as he revealed the unsealing of an indictment.

Guerrero Flores remains at large, and the State Department is offering rewards of up to $5 million for his arrest, the release said.

Clayton said the gang is responsible for countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking in North America, South America and Europe. He said the charges against Guerrero Flores are added to charges already brought in New York against over 30 members or associates of Tren de Aragua.

Louis D’Ambrosio, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division, said Guerrero Flores laundered money through cryptocurrency, trafficked drugs by the ton and sold weapons of war while operating Tren de Aragua like a multinational crime syndicate from prison.

“This case exemplifies today’s threat: criminal organizations that function like terrorists and terrorize like insurgents. DEA and our partners are dismantling them piece by piece — targeting their leadership, finances, weapons, and networks,” he said.

Douglas Williams, head of the FBI’s Houston office, said Guerrero Flores brought “violence, murder and misery into communities and nations throughout the Western Hemisphere,” including murders, violent robberies, sex trafficking and weapons and narcotics trafficking in the United States.