The crackdown on the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) continues across the nation, and law enforcement officials announced the indictment of eight members accused of multiple federal crimes in Tennessee.
Robert McGuire, the acting United States attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, along with agency leaders from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD), Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the details of the indictment during a press conference Tuesday.
McGuire said the indictment alleges that all eight defendants conspired to transport women from South America into the United States and forced those women to engage in prostitution.
Officials also allege the trafficking was part of a scheme to promote an unlawful prostitution enterprise in the Middle District of Tennessee.
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“We will not stand by and allow TdA or any criminal organization to get a stronghold in Tennessee. They are not going to be here. They will not be allowed to commit crime here. We will hunt these bad actors down,” TBI Director David B. Rausch vowed.
“We will dismantle them, and we will work with every tool that we have under the law to hold these violent criminals absolutely accountable for my fellow Tennesseans,” Rausch added. “Rest assured, this is an ongoing cooperative work involving our Tennessee chiefs and sheriffs throughout the state. Together, we are working to protect and improve the safety of our communities and the Volunteer State.”
Officials announced that three of the defendants were also charged with conspiring to commit sex trafficking by using “force, fraud, and coercion to compel their participation in illegal commercial sex acts.”
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McGuire said this was all done for the profit of the defendants. The indictment also charges one defendant with unlawful possession of guns by an illegal alien.
“As of this morning, all charged defendants are in federal custody,” McGuire said.
Officials said the defendants lured women from South America with false promises of a better life in the U.S., describing how they were bullied, intimidated and threatened to have sex with strangers for illegal profits.
The indictment also alleges two of the charged defendants used their affiliation with TdA to intimidate the victims into continuing to commit commercial sex acts, claiming “they had skyrocketing debts, debts that no person could ever pay, and that the only way to avoid those debts was to have sex with strangers for money.”
Officials said they are “committed to working with their partners to successfully investigate and prosecute these heinous gangs in Tennessee.”
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Prior to the press conference, FBI agents from the Houston and Nashville branch, along with HSI officials, arrested three suspects who are believed to also be tied to the violent TdA gang in Houston Tuesday morning.
“FBI Houston agents and HSI Houston assisted FBI Nashville with arresting three suspected Tren de Aragua associates in Houston this morning,” FBI Houston wrote in a post on X.
“Those arrested were allegedly part of a multi-state TdA sex trafficking ring that threatened and abused victims.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also announced the arrest of a TdA gang member who is suspected of being linked to a mass shooting in Chicago.
According to a spokesperson for ICE, Ricardo Padillia-Granadillo, 24, an illegally present Venezuelan national, was arrested Feb. 8 in Raleigh.
Granadillo illegally entered the U.S. near El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 1, 2022, and was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol, paroled into the country and given a notice to appear, officials said. But he failed to show up for his immigration appointment scheduled for Sept. 12, 2024, and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas issued an arrest warrant.
Law enforcement officers with ICE, Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Granadillo at a home in Raleigh without incident and found a handgun, ammunition and 10 other Venezuelan aliens in the house while conducting the arrest operation.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that more than 8,000 immigrants have been arrested since Jan. 20 as part of Trump’s plan to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, although hundreds of those arrested have since been released back into the U.S.
Trump said the Venezuelan government has also agreed to accept “all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua,” and pay for their flights home.
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
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