6 suspected Tren de Aragua gang members arrested in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - On Wednesday, FBI Mobile announced in a Facebook post that the agency arrested six suspected members of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua.

The Venezuelan group is considered a Foreign Terrorist Organization by President Trump.

A spokesperson with FBI Mobile says all six arrests were ‘administrative’, meaning the six are not charged with specific crimes, but they were in the country illegally.

FBI Mobile arrested the six alleged gang members in conjunction with HSI, ERO, ATF, Border Patrol and the Mobile Police Department.

In March, President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to order the detention and deportation of Venezuelan migrants suspected of being a part of the Tren de Aragua. A lower court temporarily blocked the President’s order, but on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court gave President Trump the green light.

FOX10 News spoke to Jessica Vaughan with the Center for Immigration Studies. Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies for the CIS, examines the impact of immigration on American society and specializes in the studies of transnational gangs and how federal, state and local law enforcement can address the issue. Vaughan says Tren de Aragua has a growing footprint in the United States, and that the group has a violent history.

“Tren de Aragua is a recent development in the United States,” said Vaughan. “They are a prison gang from Venezuela and a number of years ago, they were able to escape from a notorious prison in Venezuela and they were doing human trafficking, smuggling and drug trafficking in South America. The first time they came to the US was in 2021 when the Biden Administration made it easier to get to the US.”

Vaughan speculates why six of the TdA’s alleged members could have been in Mobile.

“There’s a lot of them who went to Florida, but Florida has cracked down on illegal immigration and specifically on criminal organizations, so they could have backtracked and tried to go to a place like Alabama where they’re hoping law enforcement agencies don’t realize who they are.”

Vaughan says the man who murdered college student Laiken Riley in February 2024 was also a member of the Tren de Aragua. Last summer, Tren de Aragua made national headlines when it took over an apartment complex in Colorado. A judge ordered the apartment to be shut down due to several violent incidents there.

FOX10 News plans to be at a news conference regarding the local arrests Thursday morning.