The Chicago Police Department is warning officers
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Posted On: 01/22/2024 5:28:04 PM
The Chicago Police Department is warning officers to be on the lookout for members of a violent Venezuelan prison gang they say might be living among the 20,000 migrants who’ve come to the city over the past year.
But there’s little publicly available evidence that the gang, El Tren de Aragua, has a presence in Chicago. The gang is known in South America for human trafficking, drug sales, kidnapping and the violence that comes with it all.
A Chicago Sun-Times analysis, based on news reports, crime data and court records, identified more than 30 migrants from Venezuela who’ve been arrested in Chicago and DuPage County since April.
More than half of the cases involved theft and shoplifting. Two involved violent crimes — a robbery and a stabbing. Records show that only one of those migrants, charged with domestic battery, is listed in Chicago police records as being a suspected member of the prison gang.
Stores such as Macy’s and Nordstrom have been repeat targets of retail theft by Venezuelan migrant suspects in Chicago and Oak Brook, according to police.
One of them was accused of having hit two stores in four days. On May 4, the 34-year-old man was arrested and charged with stealing a watch, cologne and jewelry worth a total of $329 at the Nordstrom at 55 E. Grand Ave., but the case was dismissed. On May 8, he was arrested under a different name on a charge of stealing $720 of sportswear from the Macy’s at 111 N. State St. That case is pending.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/11/10/23953...ragua-gang
But there’s little publicly available evidence that the gang, El Tren de Aragua, has a presence in Chicago. The gang is known in South America for human trafficking, drug sales, kidnapping and the violence that comes with it all.
A Chicago Sun-Times analysis, based on news reports, crime data and court records, identified more than 30 migrants from Venezuela who’ve been arrested in Chicago and DuPage County since April.
More than half of the cases involved theft and shoplifting. Two involved violent crimes — a robbery and a stabbing. Records show that only one of those migrants, charged with domestic battery, is listed in Chicago police records as being a suspected member of the prison gang.
Stores such as Macy’s and Nordstrom have been repeat targets of retail theft by Venezuelan migrant suspects in Chicago and Oak Brook, according to police.
One of them was accused of having hit two stores in four days. On May 4, the 34-year-old man was arrested and charged with stealing a watch, cologne and jewelry worth a total of $329 at the Nordstrom at 55 E. Grand Ave., but the case was dismissed. On May 8, he was arrested under a different name on a charge of stealing $720 of sportswear from the Macy’s at 111 N. State St. That case is pending.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/11/10/23953...ragua-gang
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