The US State Department is offering a reward of up to $3 million for information that leads to the arrest of Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano.
The US Treasury Department has placed sanctions on the alleged leader of Tren de Aragua (TDA), a Venezuelan gang that the Trump administration has cited as a justification for its crackdown on immigration.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano has been sanctioned and indicted by the Department of Justice.
According to court documents, Mosquera Serrano is charged with drug trafficking and terrorism. He has also been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, with a $3 million reward being offered for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
In the statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Tren de Aragua, under Mosquera Serrano’s leadership, of “terrorizing communities and facilitating the flow of illicit narcotics into our country.”
This action is part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to combat criminal activity linked to the proliferation of foreign gangs and criminal networks in the US.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua and other Latin American gangs as “foreign terrorist organisations”, a categorization typically reserved for international groups with violent political agendas.
However, Trump has used the threat of criminal networks operating abroad as a justification for invoking emergency powers during his second term.
For example, the Trump administration has alleged that Tren de Aragua is coordinating its activities in the US with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. This claim was employed to justify the use of the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
By characterizing the presence of groups like Tren de Aragua as a “foreign invasion” on US soil, Trump utilized the Alien Enemies Act as legal justifiation for expedited deportations of suspected gang members.
Over 200 individuals were deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where many remain to this day.
These deportations have come under widespread criticism and provoked numerous legal challenges, with critics arguing that expedited deportations violated the immigrants’ rights to due process and that many of the deported individuals did not have prior criminal records.
Legal representatives for some of the men have contended that their clients were arrested based on their tattoos and attire. However, the Department of Homeland Security has denied these allegations.
At least one senior US official has acknowledged that Maduro’s government may not be directing Tren de Aragua.
A memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence obtained by media outlets such as NPR and The New York Times in April also questioned the premise that Venezuela was controlling the gang’s activities in the US.
Instead, the memo suggested that the Maduro government views Tren de Aragua as a threat.
“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movements and operations in the United States,” the memo stated.
Last July, the US and Colombia jointly announced multimillion-dollar rewards for information leading to the arrest of Mosquera Serrano and two other individuals believed to lead Tren de Aragua.
The group was also sanctioned in the same month as a transnational criminal organization for its involvement in various criminal activities, including human smuggling and trafficking, gender-based violence, money laundering, and illicit drug trafficking, according to a Treasury Department statement.
Several countries in Latin America have faced challenges from the gang’s rapid expansion, which has been linked to political assassinations and widespread human trafficking; however, experts say there is limited evidence to suggest the gang has infiltrated the US.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano has been sanctioned and indicted by the Department of Justice.
According to court documents, Mosquera Serrano is charged with drug trafficking and terrorism. He has also been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, with a $3 million reward being offered for information leading to his arrest or conviction.
In the statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Tren de Aragua, under Mosquera Serrano’s leadership, of “terrorizing communities and facilitating the flow of illicit narcotics into our country.”
This action is part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to combat criminal activity linked to the proliferation of foreign gangs and criminal networks in the US.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua and other Latin American gangs as “foreign terrorist organisations”, a categorization typically reserved for international groups with violent political agendas.
However, Trump has used the threat of criminal networks operating abroad as a justification for invoking emergency powers during his second term.
For example, the Trump administration has alleged that Tren de Aragua is coordinating its activities in the US with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. This claim was employed to justify the use of the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
By characterizing the presence of groups like Tren de Aragua as a “foreign invasion” on US soil, Trump utilized the Alien Enemies Act as legal justifiation for expedited deportations of suspected gang members.
Over 200 individuals were deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where many remain to this day.
These deportations have come under widespread criticism and provoked numerous legal challenges, with critics arguing that expedited deportations violated the immigrants’ rights to due process and that many of the deported individuals did not have prior criminal records.
Legal representatives for some of the men have contended that their clients were arrested based on their tattoos and attire. However, the Department of Homeland Security has denied these allegations.
At least one senior US official has acknowledged that Maduro’s government may not be directing Tren de Aragua.
A memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence obtained by media outlets such as NPR and The New York Times in April also questioned the premise that Venezuela was controlling the gang’s activities in the US.
Instead, the memo suggested that the Maduro government views Tren de Aragua as a threat.
“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movements and operations in the United States,” the memo stated.
Last July, the US and Colombia jointly announced multimillion-dollar rewards for information leading to the arrest of Mosquera Serrano and two other individuals believed to lead Tren de Aragua.
The group was also sanctioned in the same month as a transnational criminal organization for its involvement in various criminal activities, including human smuggling and trafficking, gender-based violence, money laundering, and illicit drug trafficking, according to a Treasury Department statement.
Several countries in Latin America have faced challenges from the gang’s rapid expansion, which has been linked to political assassinations and widespread human trafficking; however, experts say there is limited evidence to suggest the gang has infiltrated the US.
