High-ranking officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) alerted Governor Bill Lee about an alarming amount of incidents in the state involving members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua (TDA).
David Rausch, the Director at TBI, gave the warning during Tuesday’s Budget Hearing.
“We are seeing a few things that I want to raise to your attention, and number 1 is with a Venezuelan gang that is being seen, more and more, prevalent,” Director Rausch said. “Tren de Aragua...they are ever-present in our country and in Tennessee.”
Rausch said the TBI first learned of the gang two years ago during a human trafficking investigation in Tennessee. TBI agents learned that many of the women abducted were from Venezuela and most of the TDA members fled the state.
“We did our operation, we were able to capture a number of them, but many of them fled,” Rausch explained. “They were out of Tennessee. We had no other sight or sound of them until recently. Now, what we are seeing is they are back. They are back in all of our major cities.”
