‘Should Be Considered Armed And Dangerous’

The FBI has added an alleged senior leader of Venezuelan-born gang Tren de Aragua to its most wanted list, offering a $3 million reward for information that could lead to his arrest or conviction.

The man in question is Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano. The FBI noted that there is a federal arrest warrant for him, issued by the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas.

He has been charged with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as well as conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in Colombia intended for distribution in the United States. The FBI added that Mosquera Serrano should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

The Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization earlier this year, with President Donald Trump claiming members are being sent to the U.S. by Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian government to destabilize the country.

However, the intelligence community has produced contradicting intelligence regarding the matter. An unsealed FBI memo from late May has supported the claim, while the roader intelligence community, including the C.I.A. and the National Security Agency, have continuously rejected the notion.

The FBI rated its confidence in the assessment as “medium,” and acknowledged that alternative explanations—such as independent criminal activity by gang members—were equally plausible.

In contrast, the National Intelligence Council (NIC), representing the consensus of agencies including the CIA and NSA, concluded in a February memo that “the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.”

The assessment was disputed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who bluntly stated during an interview with Face the Nation that “they’re wrong”. The memo also led Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard firing two top officials involved in the research, including Michael Collins, then acting NIC head.