By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) - More than two dozen people whom the U.S. government says are current or past members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have been charged with murder, sex trafficking and other crimes under a federal law created to combat organized crime, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.
The Justice Department said in a written statement that it was the first time alleged members of the criminal gang that originated in Venezuelan prisons had faced charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
U.S. President Donald Trump was elected last November in part because of his anti-immigration stance. The charges against the 27 people are part of a broader push by the president to prosecute and deport alleged members of foreign criminal gangs operating in the country.
Trump’s administration has designated Tren de Aragua and other criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations.
In March Trump invoked a seldom-used wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport hundreds of alleged Tren de Aragua members to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador without going through normal deportation procedures.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly identified detained migrants as gang leaders and members, but has often not attempted to back those claims up in court.
The Justice Department said in its release that it had lodged charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug-trafficking conspiracy, robbery, and firearms offenses against the 27 people charged.
The department said that 21 of the defendants facing charges were already in federal custody.
The Justice Department alleges that six of those charged are current members of Tren de Aragua, while 19 charged are members of what it says is a splinter faction called Anti-Tren. Another two people facing charges are allegedly "associates" of Anti-Tren.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement that the charges will devastate the gang’s infrastructure as the government worked "to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country."