The ODNI report could affect the administration’s efforts to use alien enemy laws to expel gang members.
The National Intelligence Council report, which was released to the public on May 6, appears to contradict President Donald Trump’s claims. Gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) coordinates with the socialist regime in Venezuela.
Rather, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “treates TDA as a threat,” the report said.
That law, part of aliens and incitement during the Navy quasi-war between the United States and France, allows the President to “arrest, restrain, restrain, secure, and remove citizens of a hostile country during declared war or invasion.
Trump faced legal challenges against the push as he questioned the scope of the relationship between the TDA and the Venezuelan administration.
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Despite widespread assessments of minimal cooperation between criminal gangs and Maduro, the report found that there are occasional examples of “ad hoc” by regime authorities working with the TDA for specific purposes within the country.
“The Maduro administration’s leadership may possibly tolerate the existence of TDAs in Venezuela, and some government officials may work with them for financial gain,” the report said.
The report stated that these relationships are “ad hoc and are reportedly driven by the administration’s desire to control territory, recognize the threat of aggression, or to block individual economic interests.”
The Maduro administration has a tendency to allow criminal organizations to operate within Venezuela, but added that “it will fight and contain them when they fear that it will destabilize the regime or that corrupt deals will become sour.” In part, the report says that this is a result of Venezuela not having control over the entire territory.
“Some officials from the mid to low level of Venezuela are probably benefiting from the illegal activities of the TDA,” the report added. “For example, local military officials have warned other armed criminal groups and criminal groups carrying out air drug cargo on the Venezuelan Air Force Patrol, and may have warned TDA leadership in a planned raid against the prison, the base of the operation in 2023.”
Still, in the wake of the May 6 report, the White House argues that there is a bond between the two groups that justify implementing alien enemy laws.
“The Director of the National Intelligence Office is fully supporting the assessment that foreign terrorist organisation Tren de Aragua is being arrested, detained and removed as an alien enemy in the United States, as it is acting with the support of the Maduro administration.”
