The convicted men, 31 Venezuelan nationals and three Chileans, were found guilty of multiple charges ranging from illicit association, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, kidnapping, and homicide to others. The sentence, which concluded nearly an entire year’s worth of trial proceedings, was reportedly read in a hearing without access to the press and under strong security measures.
The Chilean public prosecutor’s office described the trial process as “historic” in a Thursday press statement and informed that one of the men was given a life sentence for committing two homicides in addition to a 16-year sentence for the crimes of robbery with intimidation and illicit association.
Three men, the prosecutor’s office further explained, were given sentences totaling 44, 39, and 32 years for various offences, while the remainder were given prison sentences ranging from 541 days to 20 years.
The prosecutor’s office stated that the trial was considered one of the “most relevant at the national level in the fight against transnational organized crime due” to the number of defendants and the crimes investigated. The trial featured more than 35 witnesses, including an undercover agent who infiltrated the group, as well as more than 100 wiretapped telephone recordings, videos, and analysis of the gang’s own accounting notebooks.
The investigation determined that Los Gallegos established itself in Arica in three phases and deemed the region a place to commit various crimes, from which they were able to spread to other areas of Chile. Additionally, Chilean prosecutors were able to link Los Gallegos to Tren de Aragua, with most of the Venezuelan defendants sharing “identity or family ties,” and committing crimes according to what they called as “the cause.”
Like most high-profile Venezuelan gangs, Tren de Aragua operates under a fiefdom-esque system known as Pranato (“Pranate”) that features its own lexicon and set of rules. Under a Pranato system, “the cause” is the name given to a tithe or contribution that gang members give to their respective criminal organization.
“This is a strong blow to organized crime, but we must not lower our arms. The entire state apparatus must unite and intensify the fight against these criminal phenomena,” Chilean Regional Prosecutor Mario Carrera said.
Carrera told local outlets on Thursday that Arica’s regional prosecutor’s office is requesting 12 extradition orders from the United States, Colombia, and Peru against other individuals linked to the group, and stated that “whoever commits acts such as those committed in this case, serious crimes, will be prosecuted, not only in national territory, but also in the place where they are found.”
Carrera spoke with the local radio station ADN on Friday morning and expressed his satisfaction with the sentences, which the prosecutor described as the “closing of a cycle.”
“Let’s remember everything that happened to us in this case from day one. From how the problem caught us, from how we had to learn who the Tren de Aragua was,” Carrera said. “It was necessary to adapt and work with different institutions, including some authorities that at the beginning were not, let’s say, in line with what we were experiencing in the region.”
Reports published in May 2024 indicated that Los Gallegos had established its base of operations in Cerro Chuño, a precarious shantytown in Arica with no state presence. Local authorities found the bodies of three men buried under cement in the area; investigations later determined that the men had been buried alive after being tortured by the gang.
The Chilean newspaper La Tercera reported on Thursday that a separate trial will begin on Tuesday, March 12, against 12 other Tren de Aragua members — including Hernán “Satan” Landaeta Garlotti, one of the gang’s main hitmen, and Carlos “Estrella” González Vaca, who served as a personal security escort of Héctor “The Child” Guerrero, Tren de Aragua’s founder and leader.
González Vaca was also in charge of Tren de Aragua’s international operations at the Chilean-Bolivian border and directly reported to Guerrero, who was “imprisoned” at the Tocorón prison, located in Aragua, Venezuela. Guerrero’s whereabouts remain unknown since September 2023 after he seemingly disappeared hours before Venezuela’s socialist regime “raided” Tocorón, which served as Tren de Aragua’s main headquarters.
La Tercera detailed that the Tren de Aragua cell under González Vaca’s control engaged in the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and ketamine trafficking. The two men face multiple charges of kidnapping with homicide, aggravated and extortive kidnapping, extortive threats, robbery with intimidation, trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, drug trafficking and repeated smuggling of migrants, and illicit association.
Local prosecutors are requesting two life sentences, a separate life sentence, and 125 years of imprisonment.
The upcoming trial will be telematic “due to the dangerousness of the accused.” Chilean prosecutor Trinidad Steinert explained to La Tercera that the idea is to “avoid any possibility of the accused escaping or any attempt against those who will testify.”
“Therefore, victims and civilian and police witnesses will testify online, and defendants, prosecutors and prosecuting attorneys will also be connected telematically,” Steinert said.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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