Venezuela deploys 11,000 agents in a prison against "organized crime"

  "The Government of Venezuela reports that since early hours the Cacique Guaicaipuro Liberation operation has been underway (...) to dismantle and put an end to organized crime gangs and other criminal networks that operate from the Tocorón Penitentiary Center", in Aragua ( center-north), the Government reported in a statement.   More than 11,000 qualified personnel have been deployed, ready to restore and dignify the national penitentiary system," adds the text, collected by the AFP news agency.   The Ministry of the Interior, for its part, explained in a statement that the objective is to combat criminal activity, which operates "to the detriment of the tranquility of the Venezuelan people."   "We are committed to ending this scourge and thus fulfilling the sacred mission of protecting the people," he stressed in the note, reported the Europa Press news agency.     The Aragua Train band The Tren de Aragua gang operates from Tocorón, whose tentacles expanded throughout several countries in the region, although the Government statement does not point it out directly.   It is estimated that some 5,000 criminals, operating from different parts of Venezuela and the continent, make up it, according to an investigation conducted by Venezuelan journalist Ronna Rísquez.   The Aragua Train emerged in 2014, operating in "classic" mafia activities such as kidnappings, robberies, drugs, prostitution and extortion, but later expanded to the illegal exploitation of gold in a country that has rich gold deposits.   The gang receives orders from ringleaders held in Tocorón, known in prison jargon as "pranes."   In the operation, "necessary" in the words of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry for the Penitentiary Service and the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, as well as the Prosecutor's Office, also collaborate with a view to guaranteeing its "success."

• 24/09/2023 • 17:39