Spanish police arrest 13 suspected members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang

MADRID (AP) – Spanish police arrested 13 suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, seized a stash of illegal drugs and dismantled two drug laboratories, authorities said Friday.

Spanish police seized a stash of illegal drugs, dismantled two drug laboratories and arrested 13 suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, authorities said Friday.

The arrests were made in five cities in the first operation in Spain to dismantle a suspected cell of the Venezuelan prison gang, which the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization in February, police said in a statement.

The gang has become a key reference in the Trump administration’s military strikes against suspected drug vessels in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, and in its domestic immigration crackdown.

As part of the operation, Spanish police said they also dismantled two laboratories used to make tusi – a mixture of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine – and seized other synthetic drugs and cocaine.

The arrests followed an investigation Spanish police opened last year after the brother of “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, was arrested in Barcelona under an international arrest warrant issued by Venezuelan authorities, police said.

The Tren de Aragua gang originated in Venezuela more than a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in the central state of Aragua. The gang has expanded in recent years as more than 7.7 million Venezuelans fled economic turmoil and migrated to other Latin American countries, the U.S. and Spain.

The Trump administration Friday announced yet another deadly U.S. strike on a boat officials said was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, bringing the death toll from the administration’s campaign in South American waters up to at least 69 people in at least 17 strikes.

U.S. President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by saying his country is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels such as the Tren de Aragua gang.

The arrests of the 13 individuals took place in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruña and Valencia.