A brutal drug trafficking gang from Venezuela is operating on South Florida, federal and local law enforcement have revealed.
A murder investigation provided evidence that members of the vicious Tren De Aragua gang used women as a lure while working from hotels in Medley and near Miami International Airport, WPLG reports.
The investigation began last year when a 43-year-old Venequelan man living in Doral, retired Venezuelan police officer Jose Luis Sanchez Valera, was found dead in his car on November 28. The investigation found that women lured him to La Quinta Inn & Suites, where a group kidnapped and robbed him, then burglarized his apartment and killed him, an arrest warrant says.
Sanchez Valera left the hotel room with two women at about 2:30 a.m. and was ambushed by three people. Two of them broke into Sanchez Varela’s apartment and stole a safe from a closet.
The victim’s relatives tracked his phone with an app and found him dead inside his blood-splattered Toyota 4Runner, his hands and feet bound in tape.
Family told Telemundo that the suspects befriended Sanchez Valera and were apparently angling to get to his safe, where he kept a stash of gold.
Detectives identified Yurwin Salazar Maita, a 23-year-old Venezuelan living in Pompano Beach, as a suspect in Sanchez Valera’s murder, WPLG reported. He was arrested in Tuesday in Broward County and sent to Miami-Dade, where he was charged with first-degree murder, armed home invasion, car-jacking, and kidnapping and was ordered held without bond. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement also placed a hold on him.
Salazar Maita is reportedly linked to Tren De Aragua, although authorities did not say how.
The arrest warrant also names Yoleidy Del Carman Ilarraza and her boyfriend, Julio Cesar Hernandez Montero, as suspects. Both are associates of Salazar Maita and were acquaintances of Sanchez Valera.
Tren De Aragua has been identified as a narcoterrorist organization by the FBI. The US State Department said the gang exploits its victims in South America — primarily Venezuelan women and children and displaced Colombians. They mark “women and girls behind their ears to prove ownership,” the State Department said.
The organization began in Venezuela’s Aragua state. It’s most recent known leader, Hector Guerrero aka El Nino Guerrero, is a 40-year-old fugitive who controlled the Tocoron prison, and reportedly mined Bitcoin from it, until he fled it as authorities seized the prison last year.
Interpol has issued a red notice for Guerrero.
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[Featured image: Yurwin Salazar Maita/Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation]
