Concerns about Venezuelan gang in US grow as connection to Laken Riley killer revealed

WASHINGTON (TNND) — The final moments of 22-year-old Laken Riley’s life were played out in a Georgia courtroom this week.

Videos of Jose Ibarra, the undocumented migrant now found guilty in her murder, were also shown, as an FBI agent detailed his movements that day, including "Removing the navy-blue jacket and stuffing it into the recycling bin in his apartment complex.” Other photos and videos revealed signs of a struggle, shown in the scratches on his arms.

Ibarra's roommate gave testimony that Ibarra was given a taxpayer-funded flight from New York to Georgia. He was also linked to the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

Videos like this of alleged TDA gang members taking over an apartment building in Aurora Colorado, have gone viral, giving President-elect Donald Trump more evidence of what he sees as an epidemic of "migrant crime."

The New York Post also obtained an internal memo from The Department of Homeland Security, which warned that Tren de Aragua is now operating in at least 16 states.

Tennessee is the latest to sound alarm bells and ask for additional funding to help fight the threat.

In an interview with WZTV in Nashville, Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation David Rausch said, "Primarily right now we see them engaged in human trafficking those operations are happening in each of our large cities."

During a hearing Friday, he revealed TDA has started to battle other gangs and cartels to try to take over the drug trafficking.

Recently there was a video that they showed, where they shot a cartel member 31 times, in broad daylight on video and posted it to social media," Rausch said.

There are signs this reality is expanding fast across the country

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, made this announcement: “I’m officially declaring TDA a foreign terrorist organization.”

Venezuela is one of the four countries that’s part of a parole program the Biden administration has set up to reduce illegal crossings and more than a hundred thousand migrants from Venezuela have been brought here as a result. A DHS memo obtained by the New York Post warns “As the population of Venezuelan nationals continues to increase, the potential for violent TDA migrants is highly probable,”