Colombia captures the second leader of the Tren de Aragua on the border with Venezuela

Bogotá.- The Colombian Police captured Kenffersso Jhosue Sevilla Artega, alias Flypper, alleged second leader of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua, in Cúcuta, a city bordering Venezuela, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez Suárez reported this Sunday.

According to the minister, the detainee is the “right-hand man” of alias Niño Guerrero, the international leader of that gang originating in Venezuela and expanding to other countries, dedicated to carrying out assassinations, extortions, kidnappings, and trafficking drugs and people. “His capture neutralizes a key piece of the criminal machinery,” celebrated the Defense headline. The minister detailed that alias Flypper is identified as the “financial leader and articulator of extortion, kidnapping, and homicides in several countries”, and explained that he moved between borders with commercial facades while coordinating illegal rents in Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico, the United States, and Colombia.

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In another operation in Medellín, capital of the department of Antioquia (northwest), the Police raided the home of Sevilla Artega’s partner, where they seized 10 cell phones, a computer, dozens of documents and “crucial elements to continue dismantling this network”, the minister assured. Last January, U.S. President Donald Trump classified Tren de Aragua along with Mexican cartels and the Salvadoran gang MS-13 as terrorist organizations. In Colombia, the leaders of Tren de Aragua requested last month to President Gustavo Petro’s government to be included in the so-called ‘total peace’, one of the flagship policies of his Administration, focused on negotiating with different groups and criminal gangs in the country. However, the then Minister of Justice, Eduardo Montealegre, rejected the request, stating that he would not allow criminal organizations to “mock international justice to seek impunity for their crimes.”