The most dreaded gang in the US, known as Tren de Aragua, now faces a new threat from a rival gang promising to spread even more fear and disorder throughout the country.
Emerging as a direct competitor to Tren de Aragua (TdA), Anti-Tren adopts similar criminal practices and has recently been identified in a federal indictment for the very first time.
The federal prosecutors have accused 21 individuals of being affiliated with Anti-Tren, attributing to them the operation of drug and sex trafficking networks in the New York City region, as revealed in a federal indictment that was disclosed in April.
‘Anti-Tren is a criminal organization almost exclusively comprised of former members and associates of TdA,’ the government revealed.
Just like TdA started in a Venezuela prison, Anti-Tren’s members also originated in South America, operating for years there before they crossed the US-Mexico border during the Biden years.Â
‘You have to understand, this Anti-Tren movement is not originally from the United States- this is a South American thing,’ a federal law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity told DailyMail.com.
‘This is Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela. That’s where it really is originating.’Â
After getting started in Venezuela, TdA expanded across the South American continent, looking for new sources of revenue and following other Venezuelans who were fleeing their country’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro.

Suspected Anti-Tren members, (left)Â Wilmer Jesus Colmenares-Gonzalez, 27 and Yean Brayhan Torrealba-Sanabria, 20; (right) were arrested after a SWAT stand off in Irving, TexasÂ


Carlos Alberto Martinez-Silva, 34,(left) and Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, 28, a Venezuelan man (right) accused in taking part in a violent home invasion where the victim was threatened with having her fingers cut off if she did not comply

Two Anti-Tren members on a motorcycle open fire on a bus on the streets of Lima, Peru in recent days, according to South American media 24 Horas

According to local media, Anti-Tren thugs have been targeting public transportation in the Peruvian capital, threatening to kill bus drivers
‘Anti-Tren is not necessarily a group. Anti-Tren constitutes a bunch of street gangs that are completely the rivals. They hate Tren de Aragua, but Anti-Tren is kind of the umbrella,’ the federal official explained.
‘One of the groups is called ‘Los Orientals. They’re very big in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and some in Chile. There’s a very big presence down there.’
Anti-Tren followed TdA’s spread, absorbing criminals in some of the new countries they were in, like Peru, were local thugs joined their ranks.Â
TdA crossed into the US in 2022, camouflaging themselves among the asylum-seekers from their homeland who largely fueled the border crisis in the last four years, when over a million Venezuelans were allowed into the US to seek refuge.

Anti-Tren has been linked to a violent Dallas home invasion in September where four Venezuelans used the Google Translate app to communicate with the English-speaking victimÂ
DailyMail.com was the first news organization in the US to report on Tren de Aragua coming to the US.Â
It’s possible Anti-Tren crossed into the US around the same time or maybe even beat TdA here, cops believe.Â
Like their nemesis, Anti-Tren leeched itself to their law-abiding countrymen so they could continue to exploit them once they arrived in big cities, like New York, Dallas and Denver.Â
In Aurora, Colorado, TdA took over apartment complexes, charging innocent migrants ‘rent’ or beating up anyone who refused to pay.
Both mobs used Manhattan’s once grand Roosevelt Hotel turned migrant shelter as a home base to break the law.
‘If you look at New York City at the Roosevelt Hotel, there was a big Anti-Tren movement at the Roosevelt Hotel before TdA really locked their teeth into that place because the Venezuelans were there first and then TdA came in secondary,’ a law enforcement source added.

FILE: Venezuelan migrants surrender to authorities early on September 23, 2023, after crossing from Mexico’ in Eagle Pass, Texas

During the migrant crisis, a new red light district was flooded with migrant prostitutes from Venezuela in New York City
Both groups smuggled migrants into the US, preying on poor women and underage girls desperate for passage into America but with no money to get here.
In exchange for their bodies, Anti-Tren offered to sneak the women into the US.
Once here, the women and girls had to work offthe debt by making money for the gangs through prostitution, federal prosecutors said in court charging documents.
These women and girls are called ‘multadas,’ Spanish for ‘owning a fine.’Â
Both Anti-Tren and TdA made sure the multadas kept their end of the deal by threatening to kill ‘multadas’ and their families, assaulting ‘multadas,’ shooting or killing ‘multadas,’ and chasing down and kidnapping ‘multadas’ who tried to run away.
Operating in the Bronx, Queens and New Jersey, the mobs trafficked ‘tusi’ or ‘pink cocaine’- the drug that become the calling card of TdA.
Anti-Tren is also accused of taking part in murders, assaults and armed robberies to maintain power but also ‘to retaliate against rival organizations, including Tren de Aragua,’ according to the feds.
Federal law enforcement source believe there could be between 3,000-5,000 TdA members in the US.Â
Anti-Tren, whose presence in the US is not believed to be as significant as TdA’s, has also been linked to crimes in other TdA strongholds.Â

The latest map showing the US states where Tren de Aragua is operating, as confirmed by law enforcement. Anti-Tren’s footprint is not believed to be as large as TdA
A home invasion in Dallas, Texas first believed to be the work of TdA was later blamed on Anti-Tren.Â
One of four Venezuelan men involved in the pistol-whipping of a woman in a high-end neighborhood told the cops his three accomplices were members of Anti-Tren, reported the local Fox station.
On Sept. 21, four armed men went to the home of victim in an exclusive neighborhood, ambushing the female home owner while she was in her garage.Â
After beating her with a gun, they forced their way into the her house.
Once inside, they tied her up and used the Google Translate app to issue a dark warning.
They demanded she turn over her valuables or they would cut her fingers off, the victim told police.
The men made off with $75,000, a Gucci purse, the victim’s phone and several coins from a wooden box.
Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, 28, was the first arrested for the home invasion.Â
He illegally entered the country near El Paso in March without being inspected, admitted, or paroled by an immigration officer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told DailyMail.com.
Hernandez-Hernandez told Dallas police he knew the other men from the apartment complex where they lived in near-by Irving, Texas.
He was paid $150 for his role in the robbery, the Dallas station reported.
The other three men were later arrested after a SWAT stand off in near-by Irving.Â
Three other Venezuelans, Yean Brayhan Torrealba-Sanabria, 20; Carlos Alberto Martinez-Silva, 34; and Wilmer Jesus Colmenares-Gonzalez, 27; were taken into custody and charged with aggravated robbery.