A brutal Venezuelan gang is now active across the United States, having passed into the country through the southern border. 

The Daily Mail reported on the case of a former Venezuelan police officer who was tortured before being brutally murdered in the streets of Miami. 

According to investigators, the tragedy occurred when Jose Luis Sanchez Valera, 43, was reportedly lured by a prostitute to a hotel that turned out to be a honey trap where three men were ready to ambush him. 

Police have now arrested one suspect, Yurwin Salazar, who is believed to be a member of Tren de Aragua, a violent criminal gang native to Venezuela but with operations all across the American continent. 

The Mail reported:

Sanchez was beaten, tortured, and forced to hand over the keys to his apartment and safe, where his life savings were stashed in gold bars. His terrified niece, with whom he lived, cowered under the bed as the killers tore through the house.

One of the kidnappers, according to court documents, even bragged to her that they were Tren members. As shocking as this savage murder seems, it is mild compared to what the gang is capable of, say Tren experts.

InSight Crime, a website investigating criminal organizations across Latin America, explained more about the gang:

Tren de Aragua is Venezuela’s most powerful homegrown criminal actor and the only Venezuelan gang that has successfully projected its power abroad. It has grown from a prison gang limited to the state of Aragua, to a transnational threat with a wide criminal portfolio.

The group has thrived thanks to long periods of impunity fostered by the government of President Nicolás Maduro. In addition, it has increased its power and presence by establishing alliances with and recruiting small criminal gangs in key territories of Venezuela and introducing cells in other South American countries.

Meanwhile, the group's expansion is largely the result of socialist Venezuela's ongoing economic and humanitarian crisis in which millions of people have fled the country and dispersed across the South American continent.

Yet, since Joe Biden took office in 2021, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have tried their luck traveling through Central America up to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they consequently enter the country by submitting mostly bogus asylum claims. 

However, as is so often the case with the waves of people crossing the border, many dangerous individuals with extensive criminal histories also pass through unnoticed before setting up their operations in America. 

Last October, VOA revealed that Venezuelans had become the largest nationality detained for crossing the U.S. border, despite the Biden administration introducing more pathways for individuals from that country to enter America legally. 

They reported at the time:

Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. border, replacing Mexicans for the first time on record, according to figures released Saturday that show September was the second-highest month for arrests of all nationalities.

Venezuelans were arrested 54,833 times by the Border Patrol after entering from Mexico in September, more than double from 22,090 arrests in August and well above the previous monthly high of 33,749 arrests in September 2022.

Venezuelan gangs are of course far from the only criminal gangs that have managed to spread their influence across the U.S. through the southern border. 

Other major transnationals include the El Salvadorian street gang MS-13, the L.A.-based 18th Street Gang with ties to Honduras and Guatemala, as well as a host of Mexican drug traffickers such as Los Zetas, the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels.