State law enforcement watching Venezuelan gang as it grows in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Since 2024, it is a name that has been in the news frequently, spoken by law enforcement and politicians alike.

Tren de Aragua, the notorious prison gang from Venezuela, has been linked to extortion, kidnapping, human trafficking, drugs and killings throughout Latin America.

Police have said increasingly, the gang has been carving out its own territory in the U.S. Heading into 2026, a top law enforcement officer in Utah said the group’s presence is building in the Beehive State as well.

“In the last couple of years, we’ve really started to see a footprint in Utah, specifically, of the TDA, Tren de Aragua gang,” said Utah Department of Public Safety Chief of Investigations Tanner Jensen. “Probably around February of 2024, we started receiving some reporting of some of that gang activity here in Utah, and we’ve been trying to track that ever since.”

Jensen said while Surenos, Crips and Bloods claim far more members in the State of Utah and the drug trade in the Rocky Mountain region remains primarily controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel, police reporting shows evidence that Tren de Aragua gang members have been attempting to secure their own footprint.

According to Jensen, TDA members are believed to number in the dozens in Utah and have mostly been documented in Salt Lake and Utah counties.

He said some home invasions have even been linked to the gang, but their crimes are more commonly connected to gang-on-gang violence.

“We do see them involved in a lot of street-level crime, a lot of crime when it comes to gang-on-gang violence, and kind of trying to build an identity here in Utah and build out their network,” Jensen said.

While Jensen said he believed one aim of the gang may be to take a cut out of the drug trade in the state and across the country, he said he didn’t necessarily believe that was a likely outcome.

“I think with most criminal organizations, you look at drug distribution as a way to make, really, a lot of money,” Jensen said. “Throughout the nation, we have seen reporting of Tren de Aragua trying to grab onto some of that drug market, but I think as the nation focuses on the Venezuelan gangs, that will probably lower their chances to have some type of footprint in the drug market.”

TDA has been on many law enforcement radars since 2024. In that year, a warning from the National Sheriff’s Association said gang members had been given a “green light” to shoot at officers.

“We’re certainly worried about the emergence of gangs coming out of Venezuela,” Jensen said. “Tren de Aragua had a lot of trends, tactics and procedures of criminal organizations that were violent, and we saw some of that in 2024 and 2025, so whenever we’re seeing violence in the state, we have an interest in understanding why that’s happening and how we can better stop that.”

As always, Jensen emphasized that the public plays a crucial role in preventing crime, and he urged people to report any suspicious or concerning circumstances they observe.

“We’ll continue to focus on Tren de Aragua as a trend and make sure that law enforcement has good information and can handle that gang appropriately,” Jensen said.

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