This is John Bachelor, conversation with colleague Joseph Umar, Executive Director of Secure Free Society,

about trendy Aragua. These are gangs coming out of the prisons in Venezuela, now organized in many American cities.

They are extremely violent.

They practice a very substantial protocol of taking over territory.

Joseph describes all of this, where they came from,

and their origins and a critical connection to Ar ragwa province in Venezuela. His story is growing.

Joseph is at the forefront of describing this. Much more tonight.

Joseph Umar, Executive Director of Secure Free Society, Trende Aragua, the gangs of Venezuela,

Luston America.

This is a big story for the United States and it caught a lot of Americans by surprise and especially

caught a lot of law enforcement agencies by surprise because they didn't see it coming.

The trend that out was the fastest growing transnational criminal organization in the world.

It went from being born out of a prison inside Venezuela back in around 2013, 2014, to having

presence in at least 10 countries throughout the Western Hemisphere, mainly in

the Latin America and the United States.

And now, according to our research, it's present in at least 15 states within America and growing and 15 is a very

conservative number it could very well be more than that. So how do they grow so

fast? That's the big question I think that everybody wants to know.

And I think the key to understanding that is two things. The first is that they are a state-sponsored

transnational criminal organization, that when they were born out of a prison in Venezuela, they were

born because the Venezuelan government created all the conditions for them to consolidate

power and achieve this kind of status.

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