Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A five-count superseding indictment has been unsealed today charging a Venezuelan national and alleged high-ranking member of the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).  

Jose Enrique Martinez Flores also known as “Chuqui,” 24, is charged in the Southern District of Texas (SDTX) with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization as well as conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in Colombia intended for distribution in the United States.

“TdA is not a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”

“For the past few years, foreign gangs like TdA have more or less been able to enter the country with impunity, coming here to distribute deadly drugs and terrorize American citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei for the SDTX. “That ends now. This Department of Justice is committed to uprooting this terrorist gang, dismantling its criminal operations, and either imprisoning its members or removing them from the country. SDTX is proud to lead this fight.”

“TdA is a direct threat to our national security, to our communities, and to Americans,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the FBI continues in our pursuit to eliminate this violent terrorist organization from our streets, and today’s announcement makes it clear that these criminals, especially the leaders of these cartels, have no place in our country.”

“This joint Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-FBI operation — alongside partners in the United States and Colombia — is further evidence that we must continue to focus our efforts on members of TdA who continue to pump poison into our communities,” said DEA Acting Administrator Derek Maltz. “This is another example of DEA’s tenacity to hunt these networks down, wherever they operate, and crush their evil grip on American lives.”

Colombian authorities arrested Flores in Colombia March 31 pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant the United States had requested. He remains in custody in Colombia pending further proceedings. 

A federal grand jury in Houston returned the superseding indictment April 8. 

According to the allegations, Flores is charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to TdA in the form of personnel (including himself) and services and one count of providing material support to TdA. The indictment also alleges one count of international drug distribution conspiracy based on his involvement in the distribution of five kilograms of cocaine or more, and two substantive counts of international drug distribution.

The Department of State designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Feb. 20. 

According to information presented to the court, Flores is a high-ranking TdA leader in Bogota, Colombia, and is part of the inner circle of senior TdA leadership.

Flores also allegedly caused the delivery of approximately five kilograms or more of cocaine for international distribution, proceeds that were used to further TdA’s criminal goals. 

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine. 

The FBI Houston Field Office and DEA conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Houston Police Department, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Colombian National Police and the Colombian Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General de la Nación). The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of Judicial Attaché in Bogotá, Colombia, provided significant assistance. 

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey N. MacDonald and Anibal J. Alaniz of the SDTX are prosecuting the case along with Deputy Director David C. Smith from the Department of Justice’s Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV). 

JTFV was created in 2019 to eradicate MS-13 and now expanded to target TdA and is comprised of U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country. Those include SDTX; Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; Northern District of Ohio; Districts of New Jersey, Utah, Massachusetts, Nevada and Alaska; Eastern District of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Eastern District of Virginia; Southern District of California; and the District of Columbia, as well as the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the Criminal Division. Additionally, the FBI; DEA; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Forearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been essential law enforcement partners with JTFV.

This case is also a part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.