State Department offers $12 million reward for leaders of Venezuelan gang
The Biden administration is offering a hefty $12 million reward for information on the leaders of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, whose members have used the border crisis to enter the United States.
The State Department announced Thursday that it will pay out a total of $12 million to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest or conviction in any country.
"We are offering awards up to $12 million for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of these leaders of the international criminal gang Tren de Aragua: Nino Guerrero, Johan Petrica, and Giovanny," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote in a post to X. "We stand with South American partners fighting for justice.
We are offering awards up to $12 million for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of these leaders of the international criminal gang Tren de Aragua: Nino Guerrero, Johan Petrica, and Giovanny. We stand with South American partners fighting for justice.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) July 11, 2024
Rewards vary based on the individual arrested. The payout for Hector Rusthenford Guerrero, known as "Nino Guerrero," is up to $5 million; up to $4 million for Yohan Jose Romero or "Johan Petrica"; and a reward of $3 million for Giovanny San Vicente, known as "Giovanny," "Viejo Viejo," and "El Viejo."
The U.S. government believes Nino Guerrero and Giovanny are in Colombia, while Johan Petrica is suspected to be in Venezuela.
The reward notice came the same day that the Treasury Department announced its designation of Tren de Aragua as a "transnational criminal organization."
Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that began as a prison gang in the Tocoron Prison in the state of Aragua in Venezuela, the State Department stated in its announcement.
"Over the past six years, Tren de Aragua leader Nino Guerrero has expanded the group's criminal network throughout South America and recently extended north into Central America and the United States," the State Department said.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has claimed at rallies this year that people who have been released from prisons around the world are coming across the southern border.
"Prison population all over the world is down, and nobody knows why except for us. We know why. Because the prisons are being emptied into the United States, and the mental institutions are being emptied into the United States of America, like we're a dumping ground," Trump said during a rally in Michigan in May.
Members of Tren de Aragua have illegally entered the country since late 2022.
The reward money is being offered by the State and Justice departments under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program and in coordination with the Colombian government.
Wait, so it's not just terrorists? Gangs and cartels too? /s
Tick tock.....
Don’t forget sex traffickers and human smugglers. Biden’s idiotic border policy has been great for thugs, shitty for the US.
Anyone who thinks their only logical choice is to vote for this dotard, who flung the border wide open, is either a fool or a partisan.
After 3 years of investigation, what did the Feds charge him with?
Or both.
So Gazoo was on to talk about it, but not me...
Got it Greg.. LOL
You brought it up, deal with it.
Somehow I doubt it.
did you know that some sex traffickers and human smugglers have come from our southern border?
[✘]
Nuh uhh, everyone knows that they only come from Republican congressional districts..... in Florida....
According to the Washington post the Obama administration gave kids to child traffickers.
Yet you made the (so far) unfounded accusation.
With leftists just being investigated makes someone guilty when they are on the right.
When it is someone on the left there isn't enough evidence in the world to ever file charges.