State Department offers $12 million reward for leaders of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua

The Biden administration is offering a hefty $12 million reward for information on the leaders of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, whose members have used the border crisis to enter the United States.

The State Department announced Thursday that it will pay out a total of $12 million to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest or conviction in any country.

“We are offering awards up to $12 million for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of these leaders of the international criminal gang Tren de Aragua: Niño Guerrero, Johan Petrica, and Giovanny,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wrote in a post to X. “We stand with South American partners fighting for justice.

Rewards vary based on the individual arrested. The payout for Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero, known as ”Niño Guerrero," is up to $5 million; up to $4 million for Yohan Jose Romero or “Johan Petrica”; and a reward of $3 million for Giovanny San Vicente, known as “Giovanny,” “Viejo Viejo,” and “El Viejo.”

The U.S. government believes Niño Guerrero and Giovanny are in Colombia, while Johan Petrica is suspected to be in Venezuela.

The reward notice came the same day that the Treasury Department announced its designation of Tren de Aragua as a "transnational criminal organization."

Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization that began as a prison gang in the Tocorón Prison in the state of Aragua in Venezuela, the State Department stated in its announcement.

"Over the past six years, Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero has expanded the group’s criminal network throughout South America and recently extended north into Central America and the United States," the State Department said.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has claimed at rallies this year that people who have been released from prisons around the world are coming across the southern border.

“Prison population all over the world is down, and nobody knows why except for us. We know why. Because the prisons are being emptied into the United States, and the mental institutions are being emptied into the United States of America, like we’re a dumping ground," Trump said during a rally in Michigan in May.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Members of Tren de Aragua have illegally entered the country since late 2022.

The reward money is being offered by the State and Justice departments under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program and in coordination with the Colombian government.