Texas Governor Offers $5K Reward for Venezuelan Tren de Aragua Gang Members

Texas Governor Greg Abbott offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members. The reward offer follows the governor’s designation last week of the TdA as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

Tren de Aragua has spread terror and carnage in every country they’ve been in, and Texas will not allow them to gain a foothold in our state,” Governor Abbott said in a statement this week. “Today, I am announcing a reward for any information that leads to the identification and arrest of known or suspected members of this gang who have been or are involved in heinous crimes. Texas will not let these thugs use our state as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens.”

The Governor’s Office of Public Safety will administer the rewards and pay up to $5,000 for information about the TdA gang members in Texas. Tips must be made through Texas Crime Stoppers or the Department of Public Safety.

“With the public’s help, combined with the hard work of federal, state, and local law enforcement, we will capture these dangerous gang members and put them behind bars for good,” the Texas governor stated.

Last week, Governor Abbott designated the violent TdA Venezuelan prison gang as a foreign terrorist organization in order to apply additional law enforcement tools and resources to stop the rapidly spreading gang, Breitbart Texas reported.

“The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is a dangerous and deadly problem facing our state and nation,” Abbott explained during a September 17 press conference. “Our top focus is the safety and security of all Texans.”

The move by Governor Abbott follows news of violent activity by alleged TdA gang members that forced a Texas district court judge to order the closing of a hotel in El Paso, Breitbart Texas reported. City officials complained in a lawsuit against the owners of the Gateway Hotel after responding to nearly 700 calls for service to the address.

During Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump’s last full year in office, Border Patrol agents apprehended only 465 Venezuelan migrants who crossed from Mexico into the five Texas-based sectors. During the first year of the Biden-Harris administration, a dramatic increase in crossings led to the apprehension of nearly 68,000 Venezuelan migrants.

From FY21-FY24 year-to-date, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 499,000 Venezuelan migrants who illegally entered the United States in the five Texas-based Border Patrol Sectors, Texas DPS officials reported.

“Our goal is to defend Texas from the growing threat of the gang,” Abbott concluded in his address on Monday. “We will not let them use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens.”

“They have a target on their back, and we are going after them,” the governor stated. “Texas is the wrong state for them to try to do business in.”