He arrived from Venezuela to Spain alone, with a passport in his name and moved around the city of Barcelona discreetly, without luxury.
He was not armed either.
He was the first surprised when on Thursday of last week, at noon, agents from the National Police approached him to arrest him, so he did not resist.
That day he became the first member of the violent Venezuelan mega-gang known as Tren de Aragua to be arrested in Spain.
The detainee, who is attributed “a prominent position in the structure of the criminal organization,” according to a note from the Ministry of the Interior, is the younger brother of Héctor Rustherford Guerrero Flores,
Niño Guerrero
, leader of the group.
The Police are now investigating whether the detainee was passing through or trying to "implant and expand" in Europe from Spain the activities of a gang, which has already managed to penetrate eight South American countries and to which numerous atrocities are attributed to intimidate its rivals.
Among them, the murder of two people in Arica (Chile), who were buried alive, and the dismemberment of other victims in Colombia.
In Spain, the National Police created a specific group some time ago to try to prevent this criminal organization from establishing itself after being alerted, in different international forums, of its danger by the security forces of the countries where it already operates.
More information
The Aragua Train, the Venezuelan criminal megagang that sows terror from Chile to Colombia
It was precisely this police group, in which agents from various units of the general information and judicial police stations participated, that detected the presence of Niño Guerrero's brother in Spain some time ago, although he was not arrested at that time because there was no arrest warrant against him and he was kept under surveillance.
That order came last week when Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization, in which 196 countries are integrated) issued a red search and arrest notice at the request of the Caracas authorities in which they accused him of crimes of terrorism, trafficking of human beings, arms trafficking, extortion, money laundering and criminal association.
The leader of the group, Niño Guerrero, 40, is also on Interpol's most wanted list since last September he escaped from the Venezuelan Tocorón prison, where he was being held.
"Now we are trying to clarify if [the detainee] had any means of living or if someone was paying his expenses, if he was simply passing through, had taken refuge in Spain or wanted to extend the group's activities to Europe," one of them told this newspaper. the agents who participated in the investigation that led to his capture.
Niño Guerrero's brother has been placed at the disposal of the National Court, which has ordered his imprisonment while it is decided whether to hand him over to the Caracas authorities.
The Aragua Train is considered the most powerful criminal gang in Venezuela and to which all types of crimes are attributed, from human trafficking for sexual exploitation to drug trafficking, including arms trafficking, extortion, kidnapping or contract killings.
Emerged in 2005 from the union of workers who worked on the construction of a section of the railway, never completed, in the State of Aragua - hence its name -, it went from extorting the contractors of those works or demanding money in exchange. from providing jobs in them to other criminal activities and expanding throughout Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, in addition to Venezuela, until becoming a transnational threat.
As the head of the Aragua Train, almost since its inception, is Héctor Rustherford Guerrero, whose first history dates back to the year 2000, when he was 17 years old.
Since then, his criminal record has grown exponentially with all types of crimes, including several murders, including that of a police officer.
Arrested on several occasions, but also escaped from prison, he led the mega-gang even during his stay in Tocorón prison, where he was serving a 17-year sentence.
There, he became a
pran
, a term used in Venezuela to refer to prison ringleaders, and literally created a mini-city within himself controlled by him with swimming pools, sports fields, restaurants, nightclubs and even a zoo with monkeys, ostriches and a lynx
There he received part of the profits obtained by the factions of the
Aragua Train
spread throughout South America.
Last September, the police and the Venezuelan Army stormed the Tocorón prison to put an end to this situation.
However, when they managed to put the prison under control, Niño Guerrero and his lieutenants had fled.
On September 23, the Venezuelan authorities sent a request to Interpol to issue a red notice against him for the search and capture of him.
That document warned that it was “dangerous and violent” and that it could be hidden in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Peru or the United States, but not in Europe.
For now, in Spain only the presence of his younger brother, now detained, has been detected.
Poster from the Venezuelan authorities to find the whereabouts of Niño Guerrero.
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