by S.A. McCarthy at The Washington Stand
A new report is confirming what President Donald Trump has stated for months: the Venezuelan government is weaponizing criminal gangs and sending foreign terrorists into the U.S. According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assessment shared with Fox News, Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolás Maduro and his deputies are using criminals from the Tren de Aragua (TdA) transnational gang as “proxies” to “destabilize” foreign nations, including Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the U.S. The FBI anticipates that TdA members the Venezuelan government has sent to the U.S. will, within the next six to 18 months, begin targeting and killing other Venezuelan nationals who have been opponents or critics of Maduro’s administration.
“These findings should shock Americans but not the law enforcement community,” an unnamed Trump administration official commented to Fox News. He added, “They reflect the sentiments of numerous other intelligence assessments across multiple agencies.” The official stated, “Nicholas [sic] Maduro is a Marxist dictator who hijacked a once-prosperous Venezuela and brought in nothing but total economic collapse and gang takeover. He crumbled Caracas, now overrun with drugs and violence, and wants to do the same across the United States by sending his most violent and dangerous criminals into our communities.” He continued, “The Trump administration will continue to use every authority in our power to make sure these TdA terrorists, who are some of the worst in the world, are kept out of our country.”
An official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed that the Venezuelan government is actively “aiding and abetting” TdA and offering the criminal organization “sanctuary.” TdA leadership, the ODNI official said, has often been “located” in Venezuela and has “broadly benefited from conditions in Venezuela created by the Venezuelan government.” Venezuela’s government has also “been eager to welcome violent TdA criminals back to Venezuela, providing further proof they see them as allies. Again, this mirrors the behavior of the Taliban in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern failed states like Syria and Libya that have welcomed terrorists with open arms,” the official said.
According to a report from the Associated Press,…
Continue Reading