Human trafficking ring linked to Tren de Aragua dismantled

Authorities reported that they dismantled an alleged human trafficking ring linked to the Tren de Aragua (TdA). The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee announced the formal accusation against eight Venezuelans allegedly involved with the network.

Robert McGuire, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, along with agency leaders from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD), the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the details of the indictment during a press conference.

The indictment alleges that the eight worked together to recruit and bring women from Central and South America to the United States, specifically Tennessee, Texas and other states, to operate a "commercial prostitution enterprise."

"Those arrested were allegedly part of a multi-state TdA sex trafficking ring that threatened and abused victims," the FBI in Houston, which assisted in the operation, wrote in its X account.

Similarly, John Drake, chief of the Nashville Metropolitan Police, explained that two of the accused used their ties to the dreaded Tren de Aragua to scare the victims.

According to The Tennessean, the accused were identified as Yilibeth Del Carmen Rivero-De Caldera, Kleiver Daniel Mota Rivero, Yuribetzi Del Valle Gómez Machuca, Wilmarys Del Valle Manzano Soloranzo, Endrik Alexander Morales-Rivero, Ariannys Beatriz Gutiérrez, Carrillo Frankyanna Del Valle Romero Rivero and Jesús Enrique Castillo Rodríguez.

It was also learned that two of the defendants had previously been arrested and jailed in Davidson County on charges in a state court.