Violent Venezuelan gang members expanding operations in Midwest | 28 Dec 2024 | Members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA), continue to expand criminal operations nationwide, including in the midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. In Illinois, Chicago has long been plagued with illegal border crosser crime, serving as a major hub for drug trafficking operations run by the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel and transnational criminal organizations working with street gangs, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has reported. As the border crisis escalated over the past few years, a record number of Venezuelan illegal border crossers, more than one million, were reported under the Biden administration. As hundreds of thousands were released into the U.S., including TdA members, violence spread nationwide, including in the so-called sanctuary city of Chicago.