DORAL, Fla. – Venezuela’s vicious Tren De Aragua gang — known for its brutality in dominating narcotrafficking and black markets in an area of South America — is operating in South Florida, according to federal and local law enforcement.
A recent murder in Miami-Dade County is evidence that members of the transnational criminal gang used women as a lure and worked out of hotels in Medley and near the Miami International Airport, according to police records.
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Detectives gathered evidence at La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Miami Airport East, just south of the Miami River, and at the South River Suites in Medley, across the street from a canal that runs along Okeechobee Road, records show.
A homicide investigation related to the gang started late last year after a 43-year-old Venezuelan man who lived in Doral turned up dead in his car at about 9:50 a.m., on Nov. 28, near the intersection of Northwest 28 Street and 37 Avenue, court records show.
Women lured the victim at about 10:20 p.m., on Nov. 27, to La Quinta Inn & Suites, at 3501 NW 42 Ave., where a group who was in a silver sedan kidnapped him, robbed him, burglarized his apartment, frightened a victim at his apartment, and took his life, according to an arrest warrant in the case.
Jose Luis Sanchez Valera left the hotel room with two women at about 2:35 a.m., on Nov. 28, according to police. When he was getting inside his 2018 Toyota 4Runner, a trio ambushed him in the hotel’s parking lot and kidnapped him, according to police.
The group was also using a silver sedan, police said. Two gunmen broke into the rental apartment where Sanchez Varela lived at 6453 NW 102 Path, in Doral, according to police. The gunmen stole a safe from a closet that belonged to Sanchez Valera, according to an arrest warrant.
Sanchez Valera’s relatives used a phone app to track his phone before finding him dead inside his blood-splattered 2018 Toyota 4Runner. A medical examiner reported he died of mechanical asphyxiation. Police officers reported his hands and feet were bound with tape, and he was abandoned in the back seat.
Sanchez Valera’s relatives told Telemundo in Spanish that he was a retired Venezuelan police officer, and that the group of thieves had worked to gain his trust over time, and it was clear that they had a plan to get the keys to the safe where he stored his savings in gold.
Detectives used social media, surveillance video, and cell phone data to identify Yurwin Salazar Maita, a Venezuelan who was living in Pompano Beach, as a suspect in Sanchez Valera’s murder, according to an arrest warrant that a Miami-Dade judge issued on Dec. 22.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Salazar Maita, 23, on Tuesday and extradited him to Miami-Dade where correctional officers booked him at about 11:15 p.m., at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he remained on Wednesday, records show.
Salazar Maita appeared in Miami-Dade court to face charges of first-degree murder, armed home invasion, carjacking, and kidnapping. He is being held without bond and has a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, inmate records show.
Other suspects in the case include Yoleidy Del Carmen Ilarraza and her boyfriend Julio Cesar Hernandez Montero, who detectives identified as acquaintances of Sanchez Valera and associates of Salazar Maita, according to the arrest warrant in Salazar Maita’s case.
After gathering evidence that includes surveillance video and cell phone data, detectives believe Salazar Maita met with Illarraza and Hernandez at the South River Suites where they were staying in two rooms in Medley, according to the arrest warrant.
MORE ABOUT THE GANG
The FBI identified Tren De Aragua as a narcoterrorist organization. According to the U.S. State Department, it exploits victims – primarily Venezuelan women and children. The gang’s sex trafficking networks also exploit displaced Colombians and mark “women and girls behind their ears to prove ownership.”
The gang started in Venezuela’s state of Aragua and its most recently known leader Héctor Guerrero, a 40-year-old fugitive who is known as “El Niño Guerrero,” is wanted in Venezuela, Peru, and Chile after he fled the Tocorón prison — which he had controlled for years and reportedly even mined Bitcoin from.
Venezuela banned crypto mining last year. When Venezuelan authorities seized the prison, they reported the gang had turned it into a luxury retreat with amenities such as a small zoo, a playground, a swimming pool, a restaurant, a nightclub, and a sports complex with a baseball field.
Interpol issued a red notice for Guerrero late last year. Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477, The National Human Trafficking Hot Line at 1-888-373-7888, and the FBI organized crime hotline at 1-800-225-5324.
Here is a list of other Venezuelans with Interpol notices: