Third Generation Gangs Strategic Note No. 60: Distributed Tren de Aragua (TdA) Cell Dismantled in Spain by the Policía Nacional

On 7 November 2025, after a yearlong plus investigation, the Policia Nacional (Spanish National Police) engaged in five simultaneous raids against a distributed Tren de Aragua (TdA) cell producing and distributing illicit narcotics in various Spanish cities. This is the first known TdA cell to have been established in Europe, with thirteen of its members arrested in the investigation. TdA has now followed the well-known migration (penetration) pattern upon which other Latin American gangs and cartels have established themselves in Spain and other regions of Europe.

Key Information: Pau Mosquera, Anabella González, and Sol Amaya, “Spain dismantles its first suspected cell of Tren de Aragua, Venezuelan gang targeted by Trump.” CNN. 7 November 2025, https://www.cnn.com/world/americas/tren-de-aragua-spain-police-latam-intl:

Spanish police say they have arrested 13 people suspected of belonging to the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, in what would be the first time one of its cells has been dismantled in the country.

Most of the arrests during the operation last week took place in Barcelona, although authorities are still investigating whether there are other people linked to the network.

Tren de Aragua is one of Latin America’s most notorious criminal gangs and has long been targeted by US President Donald Trump, who accuses the group of drug trafficking, murder and other acts of violence in the Western Hemisphere…

… Among the suspects arrested in Spain were various nationalities, but “most were of Venezuelan origin,” a chief inspector at the National Police’s General Information Office told CNN.

The operation comes after authorities arrested the brother of the organization’s top worldwide leader, known as “Niño Guerrero,” in March 2024 for his alleged participation in terrorism, human trafficking, arms trafficking, extortion, money laundering and criminal association.

Key Information: Óscar López-Fonseca, “La Policía frustra el intento de la peligrosa banda Tren de Aragua de establecerse en España.” El País. 7 November 2025, https://elpais.com/espana/2025-11-07/la-policia-desmantela-la-primera-celula-asentada-en-espana-de-la-banda-del-tren-de-aragua.html:

Golpe policial a la peligrosa banda de origen venezolano Tren de Aragua. La Policía Nacional ha detenido a 13 personas como presuntos integrantes de la primera célula asentada en España de esta estructura criminal que en los últimos años se ha expandido por ocho países de América hasta convertirse en una amenaza trasnacional. Los arrestos frustran el intento de esta organización ―a la que se le atribuye en los Estados que opera desde hace años todo tipo de delitos, desde la trata de personas con fines de explotación sexual al narcotráfico, pasando por el tráfico de armas, la extorsión, el secuestro o los asesinatos por encargo― de establecerse en Madrid y Barcelona, donde ya había montado sendas infraestructuras con las que había comenzado a cocinar (termino utilizado en la jerga policial para referirse a la elaboración clandestina de droga) y traficar con esta sustancia, principalmente la llamada cocaína rosa o tusi, principal vía de financiación del grupo. Cuatro de los detenidos han ingresado en prisión por orden del juez de la Audiencia Nacional Antonio Pina.[1]

Key Information: “Police raids target first Spanish cell of ‘Tren de Aragua’ crime ring.” Reuters. 7 November 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/police-raids-target-first-spanish-cell-tren-de-aragua-crime-ring-2025-11-07/:

Police said the arrests took place in Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruna and Valencia in an investigation into the group’s alleged efforts to expand its operations into Spain, where Venezuelans make up one of the largest immigrant communities.

Officers seized synthetic drugs, cocaine, a marijuana plantation and two laboratories producing “tusi”, also known as pink cocaine, a substance the gang is known to traffic.

Key Information: “Spanish police arrest 13 suspected members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.” AP News. 8 November 2025, https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-drugs-gang-trafficking-spain-b1ee090d631c551fc4fbbfa12eaa7924:

As part of the operation, Spanish police said they dismantled two laboratories used to make tusi — a mixture of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine.

The arrests followed an investigation Spanish police opened last year after the brother of “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, was arrested in Barcelona under an international arrest warrant issued by Venezuelan authorities, police said.

Key Information: Chris Dalby, “How Spain Dismantled Tren de Aragua’s First Cell in Europe.” World of Crime Newsletter. 8 November 2025, https://www.seasonsofcrime.com/p/how-spain-dismantled-tren-de-araguas:

The raids unfolded simultaneously across five cities: eight arrests in Barcelona, two in Madrid, and one each in Girona, Valencia. One man was arrested in Porto do Son last week.

Thirteen Venezuelans and Colombians were arrested in total. Four were remanded into custody by the judge, who noted they were the leader and lieutenants of the outfit. The roles and current status of the other nine has not been clarified.

According to police, this was not a scattered effort but a highly organised network. Barcelona was its command post, with members moving between short-term rentals and nightclubs that doubled as micro-distribution hubs.

Key Information: Héctor Ríos Morales, “Multi-City Raids in Spain Uncover First European Cell of Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua.” Latin Times. 10 November 2025, https://www.latintimes.com/multi-city-raids-spain-uncover-first-european-cell-venezuelan-gang-tren-de-aragua-591394:

The operation was carried out with help from Colombia’s National Police and the AMERIPOL–EL PACTO 2.0 initiative, a program that strengthens cooperation between the European Union and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean…

… That arrest prompted Spanish authorities to investigate whether additional Tren de Aragua cells were operating in the country. In the statement, the National Police said further investigations uncovered “a network of individuals, located in different parts of the country, who formed a criminal organization financed mainly through drug trafficking, particularly tusi and cocaine.”

Authorities told CNN that the cell was dismantled while it was still in its early stages, before it could expand further. They also said they suspect the group had been active since at least 2023, operating in neighborhoods in Barcelona and Madrid.

Officials have not yet determined who supplied the cocaine to the Tren de Aragua cell, though they suspect it came from other European countries.

Third Generation Gang Analysis

The dismantling of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) narcotics production and distribution cell, the first of its kind in Europe for the violent transnational gang, by the Policia Nacional (Spanish National Police) represents a significant event on multiple levels.

The raids taking place in five Spanish cities—Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruña and Valencia—were prompted by the arrest of a major TdA member’s brother, “Niño Guerrero,” by Spanish authorities in Barcelona on 14 March 2024.[2] This resulted in a year plus investigation into TdA’s narcotics trafficking activities in Spain:

The Policía Nacional is currently investigating the possibility that the detained individual, who had been residing in Spain, was attempting to establish and expand his network in our country, following a similar model to his operations in countries across the Americas.[3]

The investigation was provided support by Colombia’s National Police and the AMERIPOL–EL PACTO 2.0 initiative (a cooperative Latin American/Caribbean and European Union policing program). It has been designated as the second phase of Operation Interciti (the first phase was the initial arrest of “Niño Guerrero”).[4]

Seized in the raids were numerous marijuana plants—found in a small plantation (assumed to be an indoor grow)—along with synthetic drugs, cocaine, and two ‘tusi’ (pink cocaine) production labs.[5] The latter is said to be composed of “a mixture of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine,” with red food dye added for coloring. However, many times, cocaine (given its expense) is left out from the formulation to maximize trafficker profits. A number of mobile phones, various documents, and at least one prohibited weapon were also recovered from the raids.[6]

This operation highlights TdA’s first penetrative attempt into Spain (and Europe) to directly profit from its lucrative illicit narcotics market. It follows a similar pattern witnessed earlier with other Latin American gang and cartel organizations such as Cartel de Sinaloa (CDS), Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13), and Barrio 18 who had set up their own trafficking cells in Spain as a beachhead into Europe.[7]

Policía Nacional Recovering Tusi (“Pink Cocaine”) Synthetic Drug from Tren de Aragua Safehouse. Source: Policia Nacional Social Media at “🚩Desarticulada por primera vez una célula del “Tren de Aragua” asentada en #España” (1:11 mins.) see Note 4.

Spanish Police Taking Tren de Aragua Member into Custody. Source: Policia Nacional Social Media at “🚩Desarticulada por primera vez una célula del “Tren de Aragua” asentada en #España” (1:46 mins.) see Note 4. 

Where this event is further of note is the description of the TdA cell that was dismantled. The traditional expectation is that a narcotics trafficking cell belonging to a gang or cartel is geographically linked to a specific location. In this instance, however, a single TdA cell is said to exist which is distributed between five cities—Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruña and Valencia—and composed of at least thirteen members (this minimum is based upon the number of arrestees). The arrest distribution is as follows:

The arrests were made in Barcelona (8), Madrid (2), Girona (1), A Coruña (1), and Valencia (1).[8]

The cell was said to be headquartered in Madrid (its C² node) where the operational commander would be situated. Three lieutenants were also arrested across the locations raided. The assumption is that each of the other four subordinate nodes would have one lieutenant each—one for Barcelona, one for Girona, one for A Coruna, and one for Valencia. The TdA members were said to be primarily Venezuelans (this makes sense given the gang’s origins) along with one or more Colombians and possibly some other nationalities mixed in—most likely as hired workers and/or lesser associates.

A further description of the cell and its activities is as follows:

The cell had a hierarchical structure in which the leader had a lieutenant with whom he ran two substructures that carried out illegal activities at the national level. Those arrested were involved in “cooking” tusi [a type of cocaine] in their own homes and then distributing it to finance themselves, but they were also involved in trafficking cocaine that they had previously stored.[9]

A recreation of the distributed—yet hierarchical—cell derived from the limited Policia Nacional press releases and news reporting can be visualized thus:

Figure 1. Policía Nacional Operation Interciti. Source: The Authors.

Given the extent of the distributed cell—which appears to have been originally established by 2023 in Spain, if not earlier—the extent of the Tren de Aragua trafficking activities would have required dozens of personnel to effectively function. This suggests that the term ‘distributed cell’ may be a misnomer and rather a TdA star-hub network, semi-hybrid network, or all-channel trafficking network of nodes (cells) had begun to proliferate in Spain—with the star-hub network or, even more so, the semi-hybrid network (with distributed nodal links) variants most likely to have formed.[10]

Such a semi-hybrid network of nodes (cells) would be composed of core TdA members, their associates and affiliates, as well as local criminal group (gang) member cooperative activities taking place in multiple geographic locales. If this assessment is accurate, it represents a potentially greater problem for the Spanish Policia Nacional to contend with rather than the singular TdA cell (albeit said to be distributed) that has said to have been now dismantled.

Endnotes

[1] In English, the title reads: ”The police stopped the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang from setting up a base in Spain.” The text reads, “Police strike against the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang. The National Police have arrested thirteen people as alleged members of the first cell of this criminal organization based in Spain, which has expanded to eight countries in Latin America in recent years and has become a transnational threat. The arrests thwarted the organization’s attempt to establish itself in Madrid and Barcelona, where it had already set up infrastructures to manufacture and traffic drugs, primarily the so-called cocaína rosa [“pink cocaine”] or “tusi,” its main source of funding. Four of the detainees have been imprisoned by order of Judge Antonio Pina of the National Court.”

[2] Héctor Ríos Morales, “Multi-City Raids in Spain Uncover First European Cell of Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua.” Latin Times. 10 November 2025, https://www.latintimes.com/multi-city-raids-spain-uncover-first-european-cell-venezuelan-gang-tren-de-aragua-591394. See also “La Policía Nacional detiene a un miembro destacado de la organización criminal internacional ‘Tren de Aragua’[The National Police arrest a prominent member of the international criminal organization ‘Tren de Aragua’].” Policia Nacional. 14 March 2024, https://www.policia.es/_es/comunicacion_prensa_detalle.php?ID=16123.

[3] In the original Spanish, the text reads: “The Policía Nacional is currently investigating the possibility that the detained individual, who had been residing in Spain, was attempting to establish and expand his network in our country, following a similar model to his operations in countries across the Americas.” Ibid. “La Policía Nacional detiene a un miembro destacado de la organización criminal internacional ‘Tren de Aragua’[The National Police arrest a prominent member of the international criminal organization ‘Tren de Aragua’].”

[4] Policía Nacional (@policia) “🚩Desarticulada por primera vez una célula del “Tren de Aragua” asentada en #España [🚩A cell of the “Tren de Aragua” based in Spain has been dismantled for the first time].” X. 6 November 2025, https://x.com/policia/status/1986704926299283817.

[5] “Spanish police arrest 13 suspected members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.” AP News. 8 November 2025, https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-drugs-gang-trafficking-spain-b1ee090d631c551fc4fbbfa12eaa7924.

[6] “La Policía Nacional desarticula por primera vez una célula del ‘Tren de Aragua’ asentada en España [The National Police dismantles a cell of the ‘Tren de Aragua’ gang based in Spain for the first time].” Policia Nacional. 17 November 2025, https://www.policia.es/_es/comunicacion_prensa_detalle.php?ID=16706.

[7] See for instance Vanda Felbab-Brown, “The foreign policies of the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG – Part V: Europe’s supercoke and on-the-horizon issues and the Middle East.” Brookings. 16 February 2022,https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-foreign-policies-of-the-sinaloa-cartel-and-cjng-part-v-europes-supercoke-and-on-the-horizon-issues-and-the-middle-east/ and Marguerite Cawely, “Central American ‘Maras’ Expanding in Spain: Govt.” Insight Crime. 13 August 2013, https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/centam-maras-could-expand-in-spain-govt/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20government%20report,and%20’imported’%20crime. Also, see “De Tren de Aragua a Mara MS13 y Barrio 18: la Policía impide que grupos violentos latinoamericanos se asienten en España [From the Tren de Aragua to the MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs, police are preventing violeny Latin American violent groups from settling in Spain].” Infobae. 15 November 2025, https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2025/11/15/de-tren-de-aragua-a-mara-ms13-y-barrio-18-la-policia-impide-que-grupos-violentos-latinoamericanos-se-asienten-en-espana/.

[8] In the original Spanish: “Los arrestos han sido realizados en Barcelona (8), Madrid (2), Girona (1), A Coruña (1) y Valencia (1).” Op. cit., in “La Policía Nacional desarticula por primera vez una célula del ‘Tren de Aragua’ asentada en España” at Note 4.

[9] Ibid. In the original Spanish: “La célula tenía una distribución jerarquizada en la que el líder contaba con un lugarteniente con el que dirigía dos subestructuras que llevaban a cabo la actividad ilícita a nivel nacional. Los arrestados se dedicaban al “cocinado” de tusi en el interior de sus propios domicilios y su posterior distribución para financiarse, pero también al tráfico de cocaína que almacenaban previamente.”

[10] Refer to the netwar literature for more information on these network models. See John Arquilla and David Ronfledt, Eds., Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. Santa Monica: RAND, 2001, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1382/RAND_MR1382.pdf.

Sources

“Spanish police arrest 13 suspected members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.” AP News. 8 November 2025, https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-drugs-gang-trafficking-spain-b1ee090d631c551fc4fbbfa12eaa7924.

Chris Dalby, “How Spain Dismantled Tren de Aragua’s First Cell in Europe.” World of Crime Newsletter. 8 November 2025, https://www.seasonsofcrime.com/p/how-spain-dismantled-tren-de-araguas.

Óscar López-Fonseca, “La Policía frustra el intento de la peligrosa banda Tren de Aragua de establecerse en España.” El País. 7 November 2025, https://elpais.com/espana/2025-11-07/la-policia-desmantela-la-primera-celula-asentada-en-espana-de-la-banda-del-tren-de-aragua.html.

Héctor Ríos Morales, “Multi-City Raids in Spain Uncover First European Cell of Venezuelan Gang Tren de Aragua.” Latin Times. 10 November 2025, https://www.latintimes.com/multi-city-raids-spain-uncover-first-european-cell-venezuelan-gang-tren-de-aragua-591394.

Pau Mosquera, Anabella González, and Sol Amaya, “Spain dismantles its first suspected cell of Tren de Aragua, Venezuelan gang targeted by Trump.” CNN. 7 November 2025, https://www.cnn.com/world/americas/tren-de-aragua-spain-police-latam-intl.

“Police raids target first Spanish cell of ‘Tren de Aragua’ crime ring.” Reuters. 7 November 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/police-raids-target-first-spanish-cell-tren-de-aragua-crime-ring-2025-11-07/.

For Additional Reading 

Cristian Brunenkant and Robert J. Bunker, “Third Generation Gangs Subject Bibliography No 1: Tren de Aragua (TdA).” Small Wars Journal. 14 February 2025, https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/02/14/third-generation-gangs-subject-bibliography-no-1-tren-de-aragua-tda/.

Jean-michel Newberg, “SWJ–El Centro Book Review – Tren de Aragua: The Guide to America’s Growing Criminal Threat.” Small Wars Journal. 20 September 2025, https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/09/20/swj-el-centro-book-review-tren-de-aragua-the-guide-to-americas-growing-criminal-threat/.

John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, Eds., Third Generation Gangs and Transnational Cartels. Bloomington: Xlibris, 2025.