Maduro offers to help Trump hunt feared Venezuelan gang leaders

Donald Trump bombed a Venezuelan drug boat as he left it up in flames in international waters.
Photo: Reuters

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro offered to help Donald Trump’s administration hunt down leaders of the Tren de Aragua drug cartel after the US deployed the military to carry out anti-narcotics strikes in the Caribbean, Bloomberg reveals.

The offer was part of Maduro’s effort to restart talks with Washington, which is massing troops and warships near Venezuelan waters and has blown up boats carrying alleged criminals, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified without permission to speak publicly.

Maduro said he could help locate the most wanted bosses of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that operates in several countries across the Americas, and which has become a priority for Trump, the people said.

The Venezuelan leader made the proposal to US envoy Ric Grenell earlier this month, alongside a letter to President Donald Trump urging direct dialogue to ease tensions, said the people. In the letter, Maduro denied that Venezuela is a major source of illegal drugs bound for the US.

“I respectfully invite you, President, to promote peace through constructive dialogue and mutual understanding throughout the hemisphere,” Maduro said, in a copy of the letter seen by Bloomberg.

Venezuela’s Information Ministry and Grenell didn’t respond to requests for comment. Grenell told CBS News this week he remains in contact with Maduro’s team, without elaborating.

“The administration’s policy is ‘maximum pressure’ on the Maduro regime, and no negotiations that could potentially benefit the regime are occurring,” a White House official said in a statement, in response to a request for comment.

Tren de Aragua has expanded from Venezuela to as far as Canada and Chile, and is involved in extortion, human, weapons and drug trafficking, prostitution, illegal mining, robbery and kidnapping. Some its senior leaders are thought to be outside Venezuela.

The brother of Héctor “Niño” Guerrero, the gang’s main leader, was arrested last year in Spain.

Trump has targeted Venezuelans in the US alleged to be members of Tren de Aragua, arresting hundreds and sending them in March to be jailed in El Salvador.

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