Just hours after Eric Adams told reporters that many immigrants, including those he dubbed as "gang members" don't deserve "due process," the mayor took the podium once again, this time flanked by Trump administration "border czar" Tom Homan and his own NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch. They had convened at Immigration and Customs Enforcements headquarters in lower Manhattan to announce a 27-person federal RICO indictment of Venezuelans they claimed were part of the "Tren de Aragua" transnational criminal organization. Allegations included gun trafficking, human trafficking, and drug distribution.
Last month, a Hell Gate investigation found no evidence that this small, relatively new, and strictly regional South American gang was operating in New York City, despite proclamations from the NYPD and prosecutors that Tren de Aragua was growing in New York among its migrant Venezuelan population. The NYPD has been fixated on the idea that the city is home to a transnational criminal organization ever since January 2024, after two NYPD officers goaded a group of Venezuelan migrants into a fight near Times Square and sparked national headlines.
Since then, the NYPD has claimed that multiple Venezuelan gangs exist in New York City, including Tren de Aragua; a breakoff group called "Los Diablos de la 42"; and now, a faction that has turned against Tren de Aragua known as "Anti-Tren." This latest indictment focuses on members of "Anti-Tren," although the origins of the NYPD’s obsession with this idea of a large, organized criminal element among its migrant population was made clear by Adams during the press conference at ICE headquarters.