High-ranking officials from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) recently brought to the attention of Governor Bill Lee a concerning rise in incidents involving members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tred de Aragua (TDA) in the state of Tennessee.
David Rausch, Director of TBI, issued the warning during Tuesday’s budget hearing.
“I want to draw your attention to a few issues, the first of which is the increasing prevalence of a Venezuelan gang,” Rausch told reporters. “Tren de Aragua…they are ever-present in our country and in Tennessee.”
Rausch stated that the TBI initially became aware of the group two years ago while conducting a human trafficking investigation in Tennessee. TBI agents discovered that many of the women kidnapped were from Venezuela, and the majority of the TDA members fled the state.
“We did our operation; we were able to capture a number of them, but many of them fled,” Rausch went on. “They had left Tennessee. We hadn’t seen or heard anything else from them until recently. Now we notice that they have returned. “They are back in all of our major cities.”
TBI is noticing an increase in cases of human trafficking, which Rausch says is how the gang normally establishes itself before moving on to other crimes like organized retail theft and narcotics sales.
“They will gather these individuals that they bring over illegally and put them out into our shopping areas and steal,” Rausch informed us. “Their next move is into the narcotics trade. They are prepared to confront the cartel directly. “They are extremely violent in their efforts.”
Rausch told Governor Lee that TDA is not causing violence in Tennessee and to warn other state agencies about the gang’s activities.
Tren de Aragua began as a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, and has since rapidly expanded throughout the Western Hemisphere, according to the US Department of the Treasury.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated TDA as a transnational criminal enterprise in July 2024.