Venezuelan gang members arrested over Louisiana sex trafficking ring: court docs

Authorities in Louisiana have arrested a number of men believed to belong to the Tren de Aragua gang in connection with an alleged sex trafficking operation involving illegal immigrants. The suspects, Allbert Javier Herrera Machado, Osleidy Vanesa Chourio Diaz, and Josmar Jesus Zambrano Chirinos, were apprehended by law enforcement at different stages of the investigation. 

The men are accused of having pimped out one of the victims, a young woman from Venezuela, for sex to pay off a debt after they helped her and her family into the United States. She and the other victims helped identify their roles in the operation. 

According to a complaint reviewed by WAFB, the victim was recruited into a scheme by members of the gang when she was in Venezuela. They promised to handle everything for her and her family in exchange for $30,000, which she later learned she'd have to pay off via prostitution. 

Upon arriving in the US, she began doing sex work in Texas. After a while, she was offered help by investigators in Baton Rouge, however she declined out of fear Tren de Aragua would hurt her family. In April, the gang flew her out to the Louisiana capital where she was housed in an apartment with another female victim. 

Machado was allegedly the middleman between men and the victims, organizing sexual encounters between them, keeping track of how much debt was left to pay off, and ensuring they adhered to the house rules.  

When police executed a search warrant at the apartment and arrested Machado, he claimed to have been hired by a friend and that he was unaware of how serious the operation was. He is being held in state custody, though he may be transferred to federal custody in the near future. 

Diaz and Chirinos were revealed by the victims and those familiar with the matter to be the "b*tch" and "brains", respectively, of the American operation. The latter allegedly oversaw up to 30 women in multiple states. They are both being held in federal custody. 

As WAFB reports, the whereabouts and wellbeing of the victims is unknown.