Read: U.S. intel agencies don't believe Maduro regime directs Venezuelan gang
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Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, in January. Photo: Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images
The regime of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro is "probably not directing" the criminal gang Tren de Aragua's (TDA) movement into and operations within the U.S., according to a partially declassified intelligence memo.
What they found: "The small size of TDA's cells, its focus on low skill criminal activities and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling," per the U.S. intel memo that was first shared with the New York Times on Monday.
Why it matters: The Trump administration has sought to tie the Maduro regime to such criminal gangs as it invokes the wartime authority of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport undocumented immigrants with what critics say is little or no due process.
- The TDA is among eight drug cartels the Trump administration has designated as global terrorist organizations. The White House said in announcing the designation that the cartels "functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic" across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Yes, but: While FBI analysts agree with the National Intelligence Council's findings, "they assess some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members' migration from Venezuela to the United States," per the memo, which was published under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
- The FBI believes that Venezuelan officials "use members as proxies" in the U.S. and elsewhere "to advance what they see as the Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety in these countries," notes the NIC, citing reporting from the Bureau and Department of Homeland Security as of February 2024.
The intrigue: The memo from the council, which serves as a bridge between the intelligence and policy communities and which reports to National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, comes as the Trump administration faces criticism for making false statements and overgeneralizations about the Mara Salvatrucha gang, commonly known as MS-13.
- The administration has repeatedly called MS-13, a gang started in Southern California by Central American refugees from the 1980s civil wars, a transnational gang and has compared it to terrorist groups and organized Mexican cartels.
- Lidia E. Nuño, a Texas State University criminology professor and MS-13 expert, told Axios that MS-13 is a street gang that shows little evidence of sophisticated transnational criminal operations like cartels or the mafia.
Zoom in: The Trump administration has also repeated unsubstantiated claims that Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is an MS-13 member.
- President Trump incorrectly told ABC News that Ábrego García had the gang's name tattooed on his hand and would not concede that the "MS-13" letters were digitally added in a photo.
What they're saying: "It is outrageous that as President Trump and his administration work hard every day to make America safe by deporting these violent criminals, some in the media remain intent on twisting and manipulating intelligence assessments to undermine the president's agenda to keep the American people safe," Gabbard said in a statement to the NYT.
- A Justice Department official said in an emailed statement Wednesday the Tren de Aragua "is a violent gang that has terrorized Americans, and this Department of Justice is proud to work on behalf of the American people to remove these terrorists from our streets in order to make America safe again."
- Representatives for the DOJ did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on whether the intelligence assessment still stands.
- Representatives for the White House and the ODI did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment on Monday night.
Read the findings in full, via DocumentCloud:
Go deeper: Trump's deportation spectacle
Editor's note: This story has been updated with an additional statement.
