Venezuelan government uses Tren de Aragua as proxies to undermine US public safety, FBI assessment finds

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials "likely facilitate" the migration of members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua from Venezuela to the United States to advance the Maduro regime’s objective of undermining public safety in the U.S., Fox News Digital has learned. 

A senior administration official exclusively shared with Fox News Digital Wednesday unclassified portions of the FBI’s classified intelligence assessment of the Venezuelan government’s relationship with Tren de Aragua.

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President Donald Trump, upon taking office, designated Tren de Aragua, as well as several other migrant gangs present throughout the U.S., as a foreign terrorist organization. 

Fox News Digital has learned that the FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials are likely using Tren de Aragua members as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and the United States. The official said the FBI assesses that this demonstrates Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s willingness to violate the territorial sovereignty of Venezuela’s neighbors to advance his regime’s policies. 

The FBI assesses that in the next six to 18 months, Venezuelan government officials likely will attempt to leverage Tren de Aragua members in the United States as proxy actors to threaten, abduct and kill members of the Venezuelan diaspora in the United States who are vocal critics of Maduro and his regime. 

The FBI expects an expansion of similar activities throughout South America. 

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"These findings should shock Americans but not the law enforcement community," a senior administration official told Fox News Digital. "They reflect the sentiments of numerous other intelligence assessments across multiple agencies." 

Any further details or specific examples remain classified.

"Nicholas Maduro is a Marxist dictator who hijacked a once-prosperous Venezuela and brought in nothing but total economic collapse and gang takeover," the official said. "He crumbled Caracas, now overrun with drugs and violence, and wants to do the same across the United States by sending his most violent and dangerous criminals into our communities." 

The Venezuelan leader, deemed a "dictator" by American lawmakers, is set to hold office until 2031.

"The Trump administration will continue to use every authority in our power to make sure these TdA terrorists, who are some of the worst in the world, are kept out of our country," the U.S. official said. "The American people voted overwhelmingly to make America safe again, and that is exactly what we will do." 

Fox News Digital also spoke to an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Wednesday, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The ODNI official told Fox News Digital that the FBI’s assessment is based on its domestic law enforcement operations against Tren de Aragua in America. 

"This information and intelligence are the most robust and accurate given their focus on domestic security and crimes, versus limited intelligence assessments from other intelligence elements who by law focus solely on foreign intelligence collection and who, until President Trump took office, had very limited resources focused on TdA," the official said. 

Meanwhile, the ODNI official briefed Fox News Digital on unclassified information from its assessment on Tren de Aragua’s relationship with the Venezuelan government. 

The official said ODNI assesses that Tren de Aragua leaders historically have been "located and broadly benefited from conditions in Venezuela created by the Venezuelan government." 

"The Venezuelan government gives sanctuary to TdA, aiding and abetting their crimes and terrorist activities against the United States by enabling them to thrive," the ODNI told Fox News Digital. 

The official said that unlike most countries, the Maduro regime has "been eager to welcome violent TdA criminals back to Venezuela, providing further proof they see them as allies. Again, this mirrors the behavior of the Taliban in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern failed states like Syria and Libya that have welcomed terrorists with open arms." 

The Associated Press recently reported on a classified assessment from the National Intelligence Council, citing anonymous sources, that its assessment found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government. 

But Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard blasted the report, saying the officials who illegally shared the classified information weaponized the intelligence to undermine Trump. 

"The weaponization of intelligence to undermine the President's agenda is an assault on democracy," Gabbard said. "Those behind this illegal leak of classified intelligence, twisted and manipulated to convey the exact opposite finding, will be accountable under the full force of the law."

The ODNI official said the unclassified assessment information shared with Fox News Digital Wednesday "are facts based on intelligence that the illegal leakers and propaganda media conveniently did not include because it gets in the way of their biased narrative and attempt to deceive the American people." 

The release of the unclassified information to Fox News Digital comes after the Trump administration filed its first racketeering charges — also known as RICO charges, which include conspiring to commit murder, sex-trafficking, assault, dealing drugs and more — against Tren de Aragua members and its associates in New York Tuesday. 

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That case was part of "Operation Take Back America," which it said is a "nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Justice Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."

The charges filed against 27 alleged current and former Tren de Aragua members include human smuggling, sex trafficking and murder.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said that 21 of the 27 alleged gang members and associates are currently in federal custody. The statement said that 16 were already in federal criminal, immigration or state custody, and five were arrested in the past couple of days.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi commented on the RICO charges, saying: "Today’s indictments and arrests span three states and will devastate TdA’s infrastructure as we work to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country." 

"Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang," said Bondi. "It is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities."