The presence of the Tren de Aragua in Mexico City was a factor in the power dynamics of local criminal gangs, leading to a surge in violence in 2023 and 2024.
A security report indicates that the nation’s capital has been used as a financial and coordination hub for the Tren de Aragua.
Although the Venezuelan group was detected in the country as early as 2021, particularly in Chiapas, it wasn’t until 2023 that it began to gain visibility in Mexico City, where, following its strategy of operating as a criminal outsourcing firm, it allied itself with La Unión Tepito.
However, it also maintained agreements with the rival group, the Anti-Unión, which led to an increase in disputes between these two gangs.
“The presence of the Venezuelan group reconfigured the power dynamics in the capital, generating friction between rival Mexican gangs,” the report states. The presence of the Tren de Aragua gang became evident in mid-2024. On July 30, the bodies of two young Venezuelan women were found in a rural area near San Miguel Topilejo, at kilometer 32 of the Mexico-Cuernavaca federal highway.
The women, Stephanie and Susej, were 19 and 20 years old, respectively, and were being forced into prostitution in the Sullivan neighborhood. Local investigations revealed that the Tren de Aragua gang had at least 22 Venezuelan women under sexual exploitation, offering services for around 1,200 pesos in hotels in the Cuauhtémoc borough.
Official reports indicate that the Tren de Aragua gang operates primarily in three boroughs. In Cuauhtémoc, in areas such as Tepito, Garibaldi, and Sullivan, they focus on drug dealing and prostitution. In Tlalpan, they manage human trafficking and extort migrants. And in Gustavo A. Madero, where safe houses have been discovered.
In the capital, shell companies and front men have also been detected and investigated by the Financial Intelligence Unit, confirming the city’s financial importance to the Venezuelan group.
Following the murders of Stephanie and Susej in December 2024, federal and Mexico City authorities dealt the first major blow to the Tren de Aragua structure with the arrest of five Venezuelan nationals, including a woman, in Privada Ejido Cuautepec, in the Gustavo A. Madero borough, during a raid on a property in the Santa Isabel Tola neighborhood.
They were identified as Dayerlin Johan ‘N’, 26; Leonardo Abrahan ‘N’, 22; and Deivis Daniel ‘N’, 23. Christopher Alexander, 20, and Euclides Manuel ‘N’, alias Morgan, the latter identified as the perpetrator of the double femicide and the leader of the sex trafficking ring at the time.
In October 2025, three more members of the Tren de Aragua gang were arrested, including Nelson, identified as the organization’s main operational liaison in Mexico.
In 2026, the Mexico City government continued targeted operations to contain the expansion of this transnational criminal organization.
