Mexican authorities arrested three alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) members running a drug and prostitution ring in Mexico City in October 2025. The Venezuelan gang has been linked to murder, drugs, human trafficking and a host of other crimes in both Mexico and the United States. The arrests demonstrate a shared sense of urgency between the neighboring countries to disrupt and degrade the foreign terrorist organization’s (FTO) ability to affect national security and public safety.
The alleged gang members – Nelson Arturo Echezuruia Alcantara, aka “Nelson,” 29, Lucas Alberto Vielma Rojas, 37 and Marcos Gabriel Ortega Sortillo, 36, had conducted operations in Morelos, Puebla, Mexico State and Mexico City for several years before being apprehended by Mexio City police supported by Mexican Army Soldiers and National Guardsmen, according to Mexican Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch.
The men were in possession of small amounts of crystal methamphetamine and marijuana but had outstanding arrest warrants for organized criminal activities, including human and drug trafficking, García Harfuch said, according to Border Report, a U.S. new site focusing on border issues.
Elements of Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, Ministry of National Defense, Secretariat of the Navy, Attorney General’s Office and the National Guard participated in the arrests of the transnational criminal organization’s leader, Echezuruia, also known as “N.” “Following intelligence work on a criminal organization, security agents developed different lines of investigation, with which they identified Echezuruia as a leader and main operator in Mexico of the criminal group, who is linked to crimes of human trafficking, sale of narcotics, homicide, kidnapping and extortion,” stated an October 4 news release from the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection.
The U.S. government designated TdA as an FTO in February. In March, the U.S. declared that any TdA member older than 14 residing in the U.S was subject to immediate removal under the Alien Enemies Act. “TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” stated the March 15 proclamation from the White House.
“TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking. TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” stated President Donald J. Trump’s executive order.