The U.S. State Department on Wednesday increased to $5 million a reward for information leading to the arrest of Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, a leader of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua.
Mosquera Serrano, 37, is the first Tren de Aragua member to make the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. The criminal gang is considered a global terrorist organization by the United States and continues to expand in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.S. officials.
“This brutally violent transnational gang is a deadly criminal threat to the entire hemisphere,” State Department spokesman Thomas Pigott said in a statement on Wednesday.
Authorities claim Mosquera Serrano, who is a Venezuelan national, orchestrates the gang’s drug trafficking and financial operations.
In June, Mosquera Serrano was indicted in Texas and charged with international cocaine trafficking conspiracy and terrorism-related criminal activity. He faces up to life in prison and a possible $10 million fine.
Another Tren de Aragua member, Jose Enrique Martinez, 24, who was arrested on March 31 in Colombia, has also been indicted.
Mosquera Serrano was sanctioned in June by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, allowing the United States to seize his U.S. property and interests.
Earlier this year, the State Department designated several Mexican drug cartels and transnational criminal gangs as global terrorist organizations.
Tren de Aragua, along with other foreign cartels and gang members, were designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and many of the organizations and their members were designated as specially designated global terrorists.
The gangs pose a significant risk to Americans, or have participated in committing acts of terrorism that threaten the United States and its economy, according to the designation.
The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, created task forces in October to investigate transnational organized crime activity, including drug trafficking and human trafficking.
Members of 40 different gangs have been arrested this year, according to authorities.
Salvadoran prison guards escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently deported by the U.S. government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on April 12, 2025. (Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo)
The efforts to crack down on foreign gangs and drug cartels are being made in compliance with a Jan. 20 presidential executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The order declares that many of the illegal immigrants who entered the United States during President Joe Biden’s term pose significant threats to U.S. national security and public safety.
