:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/6TD2OSSZ75FTBEGOLGFKXIDSZ4.jpg "Who is ‘Niño Guerrero’, the leader of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang that controlled the Tocorón prison | the world")
Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores, also known as ‘Nino Guerrero’, is the leader of the mega-criminal gang. Train from AraguaVery dangerous Venezuela and with spreads in Latin America. On Wednesday, when Nicolás Maduro’s government evacuated the Tocorón prison where he was being held, Venezuelans wondered where Bran (as prison chiefs are known in the country) was. There is no official answer yet but there is a lot of speculation.
Surprisingly, more than 11,000 soldiers and police took over the prison by dawn on Wednesday. stwhat is that Aragua is the main operational center of the train.
Check out: What Tocoron Prison looks like, a prison controlled by the Aragua train for decades
This is stated in a press release issued by the government st “Will go through a restructuring process and be completely eliminated.”
“More than 11,000 qualified personnel have been recruited, ready to restore and dignify the national prison system… a center of conspiracy and crime used by international criminal networks has been dismantled,” he added.
But there are not only prisoners inside the prison. Many relatives of the prisoners lived in a large place nearby., including children, were also evacuated. A hundred of them were waiting at the gate of the place on Wednesday for “news”.
“I am waiting for them to tell me where they are taking my husband. I have no news (…). I lived there, but they took us out,” Gladys Hernandez told AFP. “I’m afraid they won’t come out alive,” said Rubiles Mejias, who had a romantic relationship with another inmate.
The government said inmates are being transferred to other places in its 85 prison centres. Venezuela.
But who is ‘Warrior Boy’, the number one enemy of many countries in the region?
Bran of Tokoron
Accordingly Crime of intelligence, Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores, ‘Warrior boy‘, born on December 2, 1983 MarakeCapital of the state Aragua.
By the year 2000, Guerrero He dabbled in crime, assaulting police officers and engaging in petty drug trafficking.
Inside Crime ReportWarrior boy‘On September 3, 2005 he was put under the watch of the authorities after he attacked a police station and killed an Aragua police officer. That year, the Train from Aragua He had already gained notoriety in the state, where he carried out kidnapping and extortion.
He was caught in 2010 while involved in smuggling of stolen goods and drugs Marake. By then, he was facing three counts of murder, which led to his imprisonment. st Until 2012, he escaped.
A year later, when he was already one of the most wanted criminals VenezuelaRecaptured in Parquisimeto, Laura State. There Guerrero Houses have been robbed. He was re-admitted st.
In 2015, while he was in jail, ‘Warrior boyAppeared at a party MarakeIn an environment controlled by Train from Aragua. He presented himself as their natural leader and promised to improve the living conditions of the residents.
Maybe fame st A prison where the most dangerous inmates enter and leave when they want.
Finally, in 2018 Guerrero He was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Marrakesh after being convicted of multiple murders, residential burglaries, carrying weapons, drug trafficking and his escape. st.
But the jail did not take it out of circulation. Instead, the power of the ‘Nino Guerrero’ and the Aragua train was consolidated.
Inside Crime details inside the prison st He ‘Warrior boy‘He lived in a two-storied house where he received his desired audience. It also had a swimming pool, baseball field, concert area and a zoo.
Aragua train
According to estimates, there are up to 5,000 members in South America.
In Tocoron, Guerrero established himself as the country’s most prominent villain after being accused of the 2017 murder of Wilmer Brizuela, alias “Wilmito.” He was considered guilty. Venezuela’s first bran.
He Train from Aragua It expanded into Venezuela and, beginning in 2018, coincided with waves of Venezuelan migration whose criminal activities began to be traced to Colombia and Ecuador. PeruChile, Bolivia and Brazil.
He Train from Aragua It expanded across the region by providing migrant smuggling services and later ventured into other criminal activities such as human trafficking, extortion, micro-drug trafficking, and murder.
Where is El Niño Guerrero?
Government of Venezuela They did not say where they were taken.warrior boy’ and his lieutenants.
Police and military intervention, according to the NGO Venezuelan Prison Observatory (OVP). st “It was discussed” and agreed with the chairman Train from Aragua.
“OVP It was known that it was said to be interference st Spoken Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores, Nino GuerreroThe maximum head of the jail and the Train from Aragua, who was in charge of breaking out of prison a few days before the intervention. Likewise, his close friends, lieutenants and leaders did it without informing the prison population. OVP pointed out in a statement.
Also, sources close to the operation, neighbors of the prison center, prisoners and their relatives M.Many prisoners escaped through tunnels and hid in the mountains near Tokoron.
“The intervention they freed the brans cannot be called successful, when the brans who gave Tokoron were so few,” Has OVP.
The Observatory asked the government to show the faces of key leaders of the Aragua trainEspecially for ‘Niño Guerrero’, “to give people peace of mind and guarantee the transparency of this intervention.”
He has also demanded the surrender of all seized weapons, vehicles and motorcycles st.
“Other questions we deal with OVP That’s why a prison that had about 5,500 inmates started with 3,000 inmates, and now has about 1,500 in this prison. Where are the missing prisoners?
Besides…
History of the Aragua Train
He Train from Aragua Country from A union of workers who worked on the construction of a section of the Venezuelan railway in 2005, which traveled through the states of Aragua and Carabobo; Hence its name. The union charged to allocate jobs and extorted contractors in exchange for protection. Later, he expanded his criminal activities. When construction was halted in 2011, the union was already operating as a criminal gang. Inside crime.
The mega gang reached its criminal peak in 2013 Warrior boy He was again arrested and imprisoned stThere he established alliances with union members.
At Tocoron Guerrero quickly climbed the prison hierarchy, becoming “Bron”.
In prison Warrior boy He had full control and started charging other inmates a monthly sum for gyms, swimming pools, playgrounds, restaurants, nightclubs and other jobs inside the jail.
outside stHe Train from Aragua It faced certain obstacles in establishing its control and expanding its scope and operations.
Warrior boy He recruited criminal gang leaders from the San Vicente neighborhood, located in Maracay, and established another operational center there. One of those gangs, known as the “El Flipper” gang, after the alias of its leader, Kenferson Sevilla Arteaga, completely controlled the neighborhood.
Thanks to its association with this group, The Train from Aragua Somos El Barrio was able to legally establish the JK Foundation so that the organization could begin to acquire the skills of social control over the community.
Later, during the Chavista government Tareck El Aissami In Aragua, much of the state police apparatus was dismantled and San Vicente was turned into one of the well-known “zones of peace,” areas where the government prohibited the operation of security forces. Thanks to this, the Aragua train consolidated a solid base in the neighborhood.
Today Aragua Train and the groups under its command are dedicated to extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking, assassins, auto theft, migrant smuggling and human trafficking in Venezuela and other countries of the Americas.
What will happen to the Aragua train without its operations center in Tocoron?
He Train from Aragua, with a presence in at least seven Latin American countries, poses a threat to regional security. And the futile attempts by governments like Colombia, Peru and Chile to neutralize their criminal activities prove it. It is very difficult to remove. Will the situation change after surgery? st?
BBC Mundo Interviewed Venezuelan journalist and researcher Ronna RísquezAuthor of the book “Aragua Train. The Gang That Revolutionized Organized Crime in Latin America”, “Tokoron ‘big house’, i.e., A bunker where a criminal organization operates It was able to operate in seven Latin American countries and borders Panama and Colombia.
From that he confirmed it st He Warrior boy He gave instructions to his minions inside Chile, Peru, Ecuador and ColombiaAccording to the police seizures of the phones of the members of the organization in the above mentioned countries.
“In these communications they always asked for authorization or received orders from Tokoron Prison,” he said.
So, with st Offside may be deemed ruled out Train from Aragua?
You risk He responded to BBC Mundo:I don’t believe the evacuation of the Tocoron prison means the disappearance of the Aragua train.. It may go away, but it is not a specific cause. In this case, from what we see, the closing of its functional center, but the leaders of the organization and the cells outside Venezuela They can continue to function. It’s not automatic, just because Tocoron is closed, it doesn’t mean that the Aragua train has been removed.
