A couple of years ago in Chile, a name that sounded exotic at that time began to be heard repeatedly: Tren de Aragua (TDA). Today there must be few who are unaware of the existence of said criminal organization in the country, which is not only present from Arica to (at least) Puerto Montt, but has also already extended its actions beyond South America.
All experts agree in defining the TDA as a predatory company, which seeks its growth at any cost, always following in the wake of Venezuelan migrants, who are – generally – its main victims. Indeed, only in October of last year, The counter It reported the first arrest of a member of the TDA in the United States, but today homicides, kidnappings and multiple property crimes are already attributed to the group in large cities, such as Miami and New York.
Unlike the drug groups that have traditionally existed in Chile, which generally limit their actions to certain sectors and have a unique “line of business,” to explain it in some way, the TDA, however, embarks on any illicit activity that appears as an opportunity for them and that is why they traffic everything from people (their main activity) to drugs, weapons and cigarettes, in addition to carrying out extortionate kidnappings, assaults and offering hitmen services to other criminal groups.
Likewise, as also happens in any commercial organization respectable, one of the main focuses of concern of the TDA is accounting, as evidenced by the findings made by the Prosecutor’s Office and the PDI of Arica in the various raids against “Los Gallegos de Caracas”, the faction of the TDA that took the Chuño hill. In different proceedings, the authorities seized several accounting books that account for the scrupulous order with which the leaders of Los Gallegos recorded every peso that entered and left, and the balance sheets with the money that was sent periodically to the group’s top leader. , who lived in Tacna.
There is also great concern about brand value, something that, as any marketing expert could explain, marketing, is essential for any company. So much so that since the end of last year the TDA stopped calling itself that: they are now “The Pirates of Aragua.”
The crimes of the pirates
In fact, the “pirates” have been involved in several notorious events that have occurred in recent months, the first of which was the throwing of a grenade at a police station, in the vicinity of the Santiago prison, an event in which the police suffered serious injuries, while the attacker, who turned out to be one of the leaders of the group, died as a result of the shots he received from the other police officers present at the procedure. It was Jefferson Arzonar Meza García, 36 years old, who in May of last year was arrested in the center of Santiago (Prat and Placer Street) carrying almost 250 grams of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and ketamine. He was sentenced to a sentence of 541 days, but received the benefit of supervised release, although his expulsion from the country had been requested.
On November 15, a couple of Carabineros tried to inspect him on the corner of Centenario and Club Hífico – very close to the sector where the “ball players” who throw everything from drugs to ground meat into the courtyards of the former Penitentiary are located – but Meza refused. He resisted, throwing a grenade at the police officer Rayén Curihuil, a fact that is no coincidence, since the grenade is one of the favorite weapons of the TDA, now renamed “pirates.”
At the end of December, meanwhile, Carabineros and the Prosecutor’s Office announced the arrest of six individuals who had committed at least three extortionary kidnappings in Calama and who, in addition, were accused of attempted murder, drug trafficking and violation of the Weapons Law. , since among what was seized were several hand weapons and a rifle.
Other actions of “The Pirates” have been two shocking crimes that have shaken the O’Higgins Region in recent months: the kidnapping of a businessman in Rancagua and the murder of two farmers in Malloa.
In the first case, the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed, during the arrest control of the last defendant in this case, that it was a crime committed by “the pirates.” According to the judicial information available, the cell was made up of Brayan Sánchez, Angelo Cerdeño, Leonardo Vásquez, Néstor Mojica and Thiany Díaz. It was precisely in the latter’s apartment, located on Coronel Souper Street in Estación Central, in “Little Caracas,” that part of the group of kidnappers met in the early hours of November 8 of last year, in order to leave. towards the road to Gonzalina, in Rancagua, with the purpose of kidnapping the owner of the Multifierro company, who – according to the information that a worker gave them in the previous days – handled large sums of money.
The kidnappers left in two vehicles, a Nissan Tiida driven by Mojica, who was with Vásquez and other subjects. Before leaving, however, they met at a San Miguel service center with other individuals who would provide cover, who were traveling in a Suzuki S-presso and a Renault Symbol, all of whom headed south. After intimidating the workers and stealing their cell phones, “the pirates” tried to return to Santiago, but one of the cell phones, the Nissan, was intercepted by Carabineros, who managed to arrest Sánchez, Vásquez and Mojica, in addition to recovering a Glock pistol. .40, which is another of the TDA’s favorite weapons.
As was later established, the victim was taken in another of the vehicles to a house located in the town of Isla El Guindo, in Santa Cruz.
Likewise, everything indicates that the murderers of Francisco Mora and Raúl Cid, murdered on January 27 when they were returning from the Lo Valledor Fair to Malloa, are also members of “The Pirates”, who were subcontracted by someone who paid them 500 thousand pesos in order to assault the fairgrounds. As in the case of the Rancagua kidnapping, the Prosecutor’s Office determined that the crime had its origin in an internal “data”, since someone from inside the fair informed the principal that both fairgrounds would sell their production of tomatoes and that for it They could receive close to 8 million pesos in cash.
In this case, Venezuelans José Sánchez Álvarez, Manuel Mercado Castillo, Dayan Sánchez Jiménez and José Daniel Majano Garrido were arrested. The latter, like Meza García, had been arrested for selling drugs on the streets of downtown Santiago, in this case on the corner of General Mackenna and Bandera, 200 meters from the PDI headquarters.
Although the PDI requested preventive detention against him, Judge Jaime Fuica, of the Seventh Guarantee Court, released him, which was later endorsed by the Court of Appeals. As he failed to comply with the precautionary measures to which he was subject (house arrest), in December his arrest was ordered, without any, until he was arrested for the murder of the farmers, an event that ended up giving rise to the last call to the National Security Council ( Cosine).
The brand change
He rebranding of TDA – according to police sources – is due to several factors. The first of them is the devaluation of the brand after, last September, the Nicolás Maduro regime decided to raid the Tocorón prison, the place of origin and operations center of the Aragua Train.
Added to this is the fact that, as an officer explains, the name stopped being as feared as it was a couple of years ago, because it began to be used indiscriminately by criminals of all kinds, including Chileans. , who used it to claim greater criminal weight, “but in the end that began to become the story of Pedrito and the wolf,” explains a police officer, who adds that “in the entire north and in many large cities of the country there are many complaints of extortion from individuals who claim to be from the Tren de Aragua and who then, fortunately, do not follow through with the threats, which is very good for the victims, but terrible for the image of a criminal organization.”
Added to the above is the fact that today there are numerous groups that do carry out their threats and that either originated in the TDA or are groups of Venezuelan prison origin, which compete with it. As already explained The counterto date at least eight factions of the “original” Tren de Aragua have been identified operating in Chile: Los Gallegos, El Tren del Coro, Los pirates del Tren de Aragua, Los valencianos, Los Orientales, La mafia del norte, the Bío Bío Train and the Disaster Train, whose “plaza” was located in Puerto Montt.
Finally, a fourth factor that would have influenced the change of brand is related to the fact that the main leaders of the “original” group, starting with Carlos González Vaca (better known as “Estrella”), are imprisoned and this implied a change of the so-called local chiefs, who in some way also tried to distance themselves – probably as a legal strategy – from them.
