The fraction Araguay Traincited by Donald Trump under the pretext of invading the Venezueladeveloped in the country in a manner similar to the expansion of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) in São Paulo, in the early 1990s. As the largest Brazilian criminal organization, Tren de Aragua was born within the penitentiary system, from the union of inmates against precariousness and state violence, and expanded its scope through the release and transfer of members to other regions of the country.
The group was created in a penitentiary in Tocorón, northern Venezuela, in mid-2014. The unit has become the main recruitment center and source of labor for traffickers. About a decade later, Tren de Aragua was present throughout Venezuela and in different South American countries, involved in more than 20 criminal activities, in addition to drug trafficking, such as: arms trafficking, immigrant trafficking, illegal mining and money laundering.
In Brazil, where it has connections in at least six states, the faction has established bases and partnerships with local criminal organizations, such as the PCC itself, according to Roraima authorities. This relationship is believed to involve drug supply networks crossing the Amazon rainforest.
According to Venezuelan journalist Roanna Rísquez, Tren de Aragua expert, the first region dominated by the criminal organization outside the prison system was the neighborhood of San Vicente, town of Girardot, which began to live under a parallel state. “The police forces have no longer been authorized to enter there since 2014,” specifies the author in the book “El Tren de Aragua: The gang that revolutionized organized crime in South America”, published in 2023.
Over the past decade, as the group recruited new members and relocated them across the country, the faction increased its territorial influence and expanded its trafficking networks. During the process of international expansion, it allegedly exploited the humanitarian crisis in the country and the granting of humanitarian refuge by other countries to exporting members.
“The criminal organization began to install cells in the countries that Venezuelans have chosen as refuge, but not in any city in these countries. It established itself in the border areas, precisely where Venezuelans must pass in the mobility process,” Rísquez wrote.
According to her, after border control, Tren de Aragua began operating in so-called “immigrant trafficking,” charging Venezuelans for transportation services to neighboring countries and illegal accommodation.
Transnational partnership
In this movement, the CCP appears to be an appropriate partner. The approach is pragmatic, in that the Tren de Aragua adds access to international routes and labor, while the PCC offers capillarity, territorial control and expertise in managing retail traffic.
The result is a mechanism that increases the circulation of cocaine, primarily, with direct repercussions on the criminal dynamics of borders and capitals, generating billions of dollars for criminal groups.
This link also appears in legal proceedings of which the report had access to extracts. In one of them, from Roraima, we can see that Pedro José Odreman Brito and Moisés Rafael Martinez Peinado were arrested on June 14, 2025, around 11:40 a.m. The incident occurred in the Cidade Satlite neighborhood, near a gas station.
According to the indictment, Pedro José was arrested for carrying drugs with him, while Moisés Rafael was arrested for possession and sale of drugs for the benefit of Tren de Aragua, an organization of which they were part.
During the operation, 755.33 grams of powder cocaine and 49.39 grams of crack cocaine were seized. During a custody hearing, the arrest in flagrante delicto was approved and transformed into a preventive arrest to guarantee public order, taking into account the seriousness of the facts and the concrete risk identified by the court. This agreement supported the renewal of the preventive detention of the two men within the Roraima justice system.
The most recent procedural movement obtained by the report, which dates back to December last year, indicates that the case has progressed smoothly. There was an instruction hearing by videoconference on the 1st. In the following days, the reports were collated and final arguments were presented, with communications forwarded to the National Electronic Justice Gazette. On the 20th, the deadline for the demonstration of the two Venezuelan defendants appeared, which was not respected.
The process, still ongoing, illustrates how the Venezuelan faction, by associating itself with already consolidated structures like the PCC, has ceased to be an external phenomenon materializing in investigations and convictions in Brazil.
Trump and drug trafficking
In 2020, the United States Department of Justice charged Nicolás Maduro with leading an alleged Venezuelan drug cartel, the Soles Cartel. The document was used throughout 2025 to justify escalating tensions and military action against the country, culminating in the invasion and capture of the dictator on January 3.
After the arrest, a new document published by the Ministry of Justice changed Nicolas Maduro’s qualifications. The Chavista, who was until then accused of being “at the head of a terrorist drug trafficking organization”, is now guilty of “participation, protection and perpetuation of a culture of corruption and enrichment resulting from drug trafficking” and of profiting from it.
The Soles cartel, previously described as a terrorist organization, was only mentioned twice in the new document and came to be characterized as an umbrella term for drug trafficking governed by the Venezuelan elite.
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