Blanche revealed that since President Donald Trump took office last year, nearly 350 Tren de Aragua members have been charged with or convicted of numerous crimes. The attorney general said the number was a “pretty good start,” though there are a “lot more” members who are still active in the United States.

There is no official count of how many Tren de Aragua members are active in the country.

Notably, Blanche blamed the Biden administration for letting the eight drug cartel suspects illegally enter the country and carry out “vicious” crimes, as in the two newly announced cases.

“Every one of them entered under the Biden administration between December 2021 and April 2024,” he said. “None of these men should have been in this country.”

Outside Dallas in 2024, four men murdered a father and kidnapped both his 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew. Three of those four suspects are in U.S. custody for other crimes they committed, and the fourth is being held in Colombia. The fifth defendant facing charges was a high-ranking official within the Venezuelan gang.

Less than two months ago in Chicago, a male victim was kidnapped by three men in broad daylight at a park and taken to an apartment. The bound man was then transported to an abandoned building, where he was shot in the head and body multiple times. His body was left face down in a bathtub in the abandoned building.

Both incidents were laid out in detail by U.S. Attorneys Ryan Raybould of Texas and Andrew Boutros of Illinois.

“The father in Texas should be alive today,” Blanche said. “His daughter and nephew should have never been kidnapped. The young victim in Chicago should be alive.”

While providing statistics about Tren de Aragua, Patel said the drug cartel has seen a 519% increase in arrests during Trump’s second term so far. Speaking more generally, the FBI director disclosed that 29,000 “violent” gang members have been arrested and 2,700 gangs across the country have been thwarted.

“We will get them anywhere in the country,” he said. “We will go overseas and get the highest-ranking members of Tren de Aragua and bring them here to justice.”

Patel referenced a separate case in which federal authorities went after Venezuelan nationals who were recently sentenced to over six years in prison for hacking ATMs across the U.S. in a “jackpotting” scheme. The two suspects were linked to Tren de Aragua.

VENEZUELAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS LINKED TO TREN DE ARAGUA SENT TO PRISON FOR ATM HACKING SCHEME

When asked by a reporter whether the DOJ will add terrorism charges to the Dallas and Chicago indictments, Blanche signaled that it could be the case.

“Oftentimes, those additional charges come later in the case when we’re able to supersede,” he answered. “President Trump’s instructed our prosecutors to, wherever possible, add any sort of terrorism charges to existing cases or cases that we’re charging.”