US officials claimed that Venezuela's Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang posed a significant threat to national security, but internal records suggest a different story.
According to hundreds of documents obtained by WIRED, the US intelligence community had a poor understanding of the group's activities in the country. Intelligence taskings and law enforcement bulletins described fragmented and low-level crime, rather than a coordinated terrorist threat.
The documents show that agencies struggled to determine whether TdA even functioned as an organized entity in the US at all. Analysts repeatedly cited "intelligence gaps" in understanding how the group operated on US soil, including questions about its size, financing, and weapons access.
In contrast to public statements from senior officials, field-level reporting portrayed TdA as a profit-driven criminal group with no indication of centralized command or strategic coordination. The gang's activities were largely described as opportunistic and mundane, ranging from smash-and-grab burglaries to delivery-app fraud.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that TdA was a "foreign arm of the Venezuelan government" with a "command structure," but this assessment was not supported by internal records. The Border Patrol assessment obtained by WIRED showed officials could not substantiate these claims, relying instead on interview-based estimates rather than confirmed detections of gang members entering the US.
The tasking order issued by national intelligence managers in May 2025 highlighted unresolved questions about TdA's activities, including its size, financing, and weapons access. The directive also noted that analysts were unsure whether US-based TdA members operated under the direction of foreign-based leadership.
Similar limits on understanding surfaced in records from White House-run interagency task forces, known as HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas). These reports failed to identify a sprawling narco-terror enterprise publicly described by senior officials and instead portrayed TdA activity as "street level."
In contrast, assessments by Customs and Border Protection ranked TdA among the most capable foreign terrorist groups, but acknowledged that it had no knowledge of any specific or credible threat. The agency noted that its detection methods identified only 83 known TdA members at the border over a 22-month period.
The reports also showed that TdA members were exploiting food delivery and rideshare platforms as a source of income and a means to allegedly facilitate routine criminal activity. However, these claims were often made with low confidence language and vague attribution.
In conclusion, the internal records suggest that the US intelligence community had a poor understanding of TdA's activities in the country, which was not supported by public statements from senior officials. The reports highlight unresolved questions about the group's size, financing, and weapons access, as well as its potential response to pressure.
According to hundreds of documents obtained by WIRED, the US intelligence community had a poor understanding of the group's activities in the country. Intelligence taskings and law enforcement bulletins described fragmented and low-level crime, rather than a coordinated terrorist threat.
The documents show that agencies struggled to determine whether TdA even functioned as an organized entity in the US at all. Analysts repeatedly cited "intelligence gaps" in understanding how the group operated on US soil, including questions about its size, financing, and weapons access.
In contrast to public statements from senior officials, field-level reporting portrayed TdA as a profit-driven criminal group with no indication of centralized command or strategic coordination. The gang's activities were largely described as opportunistic and mundane, ranging from smash-and-grab burglaries to delivery-app fraud.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that TdA was a "foreign arm of the Venezuelan government" with a "command structure," but this assessment was not supported by internal records. The Border Patrol assessment obtained by WIRED showed officials could not substantiate these claims, relying instead on interview-based estimates rather than confirmed detections of gang members entering the US.
The tasking order issued by national intelligence managers in May 2025 highlighted unresolved questions about TdA's activities, including its size, financing, and weapons access. The directive also noted that analysts were unsure whether US-based TdA members operated under the direction of foreign-based leadership.
Similar limits on understanding surfaced in records from White House-run interagency task forces, known as HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas). These reports failed to identify a sprawling narco-terror enterprise publicly described by senior officials and instead portrayed TdA activity as "street level."
In contrast, assessments by Customs and Border Protection ranked TdA among the most capable foreign terrorist groups, but acknowledged that it had no knowledge of any specific or credible threat. The agency noted that its detection methods identified only 83 known TdA members at the border over a 22-month period.
The reports also showed that TdA members were exploiting food delivery and rideshare platforms as a source of income and a means to allegedly facilitate routine criminal activity. However, these claims were often made with low confidence language and vague attribution.
In conclusion, the internal records suggest that the US intelligence community had a poor understanding of TdA's activities in the country, which was not supported by public statements from senior officials. The reports highlight unresolved questions about the group's size, financing, and weapons access, as well as its potential response to pressure.
THE US GOV TOLD US ONE THING BUT THE REALITY IS WHOLE DIFFERENT!!! 
THEY SAY TREN DE ARAGUA IS A DEADLY TERRORIST GROUP BUT IT'S JUST A BUNCH OF CROOKS TRYING TO SCAM PEOPLE WITH FOOD DELIVERY APPS AND RIDESHARE 
. I MEAN, WHO KNEW RIGHT? 
.
. I've got friends who work in law enforcement and they're always talking about how they don't even know what to make of this TdA group anymore. They're like, "Is it even organized?" 
. And then you hear the Attorney General saying all these wild things about it being a "foreign arm of the Venezuelan government" with a "command structure"... no way, fam 
. I mean, where's the evidence? It's just not adding up.
. They can't even figure out how big TdA is or who's financing it. I'm starting to think that all this hype is just a bunch of folks trying to sound tough and get some attention 
.
. We need to stop jumping to conclusions and start getting the facts straight 
. Otherwise, we're gonna end up causing more problems than we solve.
but there's no proof of that 
in fact most reports just describe it as some low-level profiting off food delivery apps and stuff 
like, what's going on here? is this some kind of misinfo or just straight up confusion? 
I mean, I guess it's easy to spin a narrative that fits your agenda, but come on. Can't we just take this guy for what he is? 
The fact that analysts were struggling to get a handle on the group's size, financing, and operations in the US just makes me wonder what's really going on.
Let's see what else comes out before we start labeling someone a "foreign arm of the Venezuelan government". 
. I mean, hundreds of internal records show that the intelligence community had a super poor understanding of their activities in the country. Like, they were more focused on smash-and-grab burglaries and delivery-app fraud than some sort of coordinated terrorist threat 
.
.
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). It just goes to show that info can be all over the place and not always reliable 
. Hopefully they'll help clarify things for us 
. It seems like they had a major #intelligenceFail 
and got their facts completely mixed up. I mean, the internal records show that TdA was basically just a profit-driven criminal group doing low-level crime stuff, not some coordinated terrorist threat 
. It looks like US intelligence was sailing in a different direction when it came to understanding TdA's activities in Venezuela! 
The documents revealed that agencies were struggling to grasp the group's operations, and their assessments were often based on shaky ground. It's time for officials to come clean about what they really know (or don't know) about this gang.
The US government's claims about Venezuela's TdA gang seem to be based on a bunch of assumptions and misunderstandings. It's like they're trying to spin a yarn without actually knowing the facts. 
These internal records are like a wake-up call, showing that the intelligence community had no idea what they were dealing with. 
the government's trying to say TdA is a major threat but internal docs show it's just a bunch of low-level crime 
I mean, if you're gonna call out a gang as a major threat, shouldn't you at least have some solid evidence to back it up? 
. The fact that senior officials are making claims without solid evidence is concerning 
.