Security Minister Omar García Harfuch announced on Tuesday the arrest in Mexico City of six members of Tren de Aragua, a crime group from Venezuela that the U.S. government has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
In a social media post, García Harfuch wrote that personnel from federal security forces, including the army and the National Guard, along with Mexico City police, detained six Tren de Aragua members linked to extortion, human trafficking and drug trafficking.
En la Ciudad de México, como resultado de trabajos de inteligencia e investigación, elementos de @Defensamx1 @SSPCMexico, @SSC_CDMX @FGRMexico y @GN_MEXICO_ detuvieron a seis integrantes de la organización criminal “Tren de Aragua”, relacionadas con extorsión, trata de personas… pic.twitter.com/ogQS9WXe6z
— Omar H Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch) January 13, 2026
According to a Security Ministry (SSPC) statement, five of the suspects were detained in Valle Gómez, an inner-city neighborhood north of Mexico City’s historic center, and one was arrested in the borough of Iztapalapa on the capital’s eastern side.
Among the five people arrested in Valle Gómez was a woman identified as Lesli Valeri Flores Arrieta.
The SSPC said that she has been “identified as responsible for collecting payments derived from sexual exploitation, drug distribution and control of female victims.”
The ministry also said that the woman acted as a liaison with a local criminal group, reportedly La Unión de Tepito.
The other four people detained in Valle Gómez were identified in media reports as Jorge Donovan Romero Flores, Giancarlo Romero Flores, Valeria Pineda Arredondo and Diana Paola Ortega Pérez. The newspaper Reforma reported that they are collaborators and relatives of Flores Arrieta.
The five suspects arrested in Valle Gómez were located at two homes in the neighborhood. The SSPC said that authorities seized methamphetamine, marijuana, cell phones, a firearm, cash and computer equipment at the properties. It also said that a notebook containing “a list of names linked to the extortion of women in different areas of the city” was seized.
In Iztapalapa, an arrest warrant was executed against a man identified as Bryan Betancourt Olivera.
García Harfuch said that he is a “financial operator” for Tren de Aragua, described by the U.S. Department of Justice as “a violent transnational criminal organization that originated as a prison gang in Venezuela in the mid-2000s.”
According to the SSPC, Betancourt was also involved in facilitating and providing “homes for the protection and lodging of members of the criminal group and foreign women.”
Neither the SSPC nor García Harfuch revealed the nationalities of the six suspects.
The announcement of the six arrests came a day after President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone to United States President Donald Trump, who last week said that the U.S. would start “hitting” cartels on land.
After the call on Monday morning, Sheinbaum ruled out the possibility of U.S. military action in Mexico, but her government remains under pressure from the Trump administration to do more to combat cartels and the drugs they manufacture and traffic.
Tren de Aragua in Mexico
Tren de Aragua — designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the U.S. government last February — has had a presence in Mexico since at least 2021, according to the newspaper El Universal.
The newspaper reported in September that the crime group operates in 11 states, where it is said to be involved in human trafficking, drug trafficking and extortion, among other crimes. Those states are Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Veracruz, Hidalgo, Puebla, México state, Guanajuato, Mexico City, Tamaulipas and Chihuahua.
El Universal reported that Tren de Aragua collaborates with local crime groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, both of which were designated as FTOs by the U.S. government last year.
Other alleged Tren de Aragua members have previously been arrested in Mexico, including three men who were taken into custody in Mexico City last October.
Among the three men detained were Nelson Arturo Echezuria Alcántara, who was identified as the criminal group’s leader in Mexico. García Harfuch wrote on social media on Oct. 4 that Echezuria was accused of planning and committing “various femicides.”
With reports from Reforma and El Universal
