While the headlines and political speeches focused mainly on Tren of Aragua, another criminal group from Venezuela has widened its operations in Latin America, leaving a more silent but no less violent brand than the more famous Venezuelan gang.
Tren de Aragua is sadly famous for its rapid expansion throughout Latin America. But a wave of criminals from the northwest Venezuelan state of Zulia who was arrested or killed in countries like Colombia, Argentina and Chile reveals another branch of the transnational scope of Venezuelan organized crime.
The most recent case is that of Yeferson Nava Jiménez, alias “Yef Nava”, which was captured at the end of May in a high -end district of Medellín, Colombia. Yef Nava was the target of an interpol red alert and considered one of the most sought after criminals in Venezuela. He would be the main chief of Meleán clanOne of the oldest and most powerful criminal clans in Zulia, with more than 600 members, according to official reports.
“Nava is sought by the judicial system in our neighboring country for kidnapping, homicide and extortion. Posted on X.
After having undergone several aesthetic surgeries to modify its appearance, Nava set up a base of operations in Medellín to coordinate extortion regimes and extend its criminal network in other regions of Colombia.
But it was not the first time that the Meleán clan and other Zulia criminals took root outside Venezuela.
Refuge search
Before Tren de Aragua and his various factions established their operations Throughout Latin America, making the headlines in the region, several Zulia gangs had already made their criminal mark in the region – led by the Meleán clan.
During the night of March 24, 2012, a pair of wage killers killed Nelsón Meleán, who was with his family in a shopping center in the Colombian city of Santa Marta, located on the Caribbean coast.
Several media presented Meleán as a well -known businessman From Zulia, but Nelsón was Antonio Meleán's younger brother, alias “Antonito”, the leader of a criminal group who controlled activities such as extortion, car flight and kidnapping in Costa Oriental del Lago de Maracaibo, Zulia. Antonito was murdered in 2008 while he was in a hair salon.
See also: The broken mafia behind the criminal chaos in Zulia, Venezuela
After Antonito's death, violence in Zulia exploded, with several homicides, armed attacks and bombing targeting the members and relatives of the organization. Nelsón Meleán and other members of his clan have taken up residence in Colombia in search of refuge. But the violence that tormented Zulia followed them in Colombia, because several clashes between the rival factions crossed the border.
One of the main actors in this violence was Hely Helberto Fernández, alias “El Chamut”, a former police officer who was a lieutenant for the Meleán clan and was among the 10 most sought -after criminals in Zulia. El Chamut was captured in Colombia in February 2018 after being injured in a shooting with another criminal organization in Cartagena, Colombia.
Months later, as he recovered in a Barranquilla hospital in police custody, he managed to escape and flee from Venezuela. According to official reports, El Chamut used a false identification to induce inductible authorities and sought alliances with criminals from the Colombian Coast of the Caribbean. The following year, he was murdered in Venezuela during a confrontation with local security forces.
Another conflict This propagation from Zulia to Colombia and made the headlines was the rivalry between “Yeico Masacre“And” Sleiter. “”
Erick Alberto Parra Mendoza, alias “Yeico Masacre”, was a former member of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and ex-Hitman for the Meleán clan. Sleiter José Leal was a former prison gang leader – known locally as “pran– From the Cabima detention center to Zulia, which operated under the Meleán clan.
The two fled to Colombia to try to protect their families from violence in Zulia and take control of extortion in various cities. But their war followed them. Several family members close to Yeico Masacre were killed in Colombian cities. By 2020, at least 30 murders In Colombia, had been linked to the dispute between them, and Sleiter himself was killed that year in a firearm attack in Bogotá.
After the murder of Sleiter, the subordinates of Yeico Masacre continued to operate in Bogotá and other cities on the Caribbean coast. But the Yeico-Sleiter rivalry caused a strong response from the government, which prevented Yeico Masacre's group from consolidating itself, and its criminal profile has gradually decreased over time.
New criminal opportunities
The lack of criminal opportunities in Venezuela – the result of a serious economic crisis, which has reduced the purchasing power of citizens – has pushed several criminal groups to migrate in search of new sources of illicit income.
“Venezuela has stopped being a business for some criminals. So, they had to go to another country where it is more profitable ”, Roberto Briceño-León, sociologist and director of the non -governmental Venezuelan observatory of violence, Insight Crime told Insight.
One of these criminals was Bernardino Meleán Frontado, aka “Willy Meleán”, the former boss and chief of Yef Nava of the Meleán clan, who was killed by the Colombian authorities during a raid in November 2020 while he was hiding in a luxury field in the municipality of Sabana de Torres, Santander Department.
“His criminal activities in Colombia began in 2018 and focused on homicide and weapons traffic,” said Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo in a press conference Confirming the death of Willy Meleán.
See also: Why does Venezuela's crime rate drop?
To escape local authorities, Meleán infiltrated A local register office in Galapa, Santander, and obtained false identification documents for himself and other members of his criminal organization. The group has expanded its operations in at least eight Colombian departments, whose capital, Bogotá, where they were behind several targeted murders linked to Venezuela rivalries and to the control of illicit companies such as retail drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings and extortion.
However, the presence of the Meleán clan is not limited to Colombia. The authorities of Chile also reported crimes related to the group. The first indication of the group's presence was in 2022 when Orlando Antonio Báez Montiel was expelled to Caracas du Chile. According to the media, Báez has exploited a Meleán cell in Santiago, Chile, involved in several murders and the extortion of migrant communities in the capital.
Beyond Tren de Aragua
The lack of judicial cooperation of the Venezuelan authorities, combined with the regional ignorance of the Zulia criminal landscape, has led to many main leaders of the Meleán clan to by mistake presented as transnational cells of transnational cells of transnational cells of transnational cells of transnational cells of transnational cells of transnational cells Tren of AraguaIgnoring their long criminal history in their country of origin.
In October 2023, Guillermo Rafael Boscán Bracho, alias “El Yiyi“Was captured in the province of Corrientes, Argentina, in an operation against an allegedly linked to Tren of Aragua which was involved in money laundering. official surveysThe 12 persons detained as part of the Yiyi group have bleached money to illegal activities in Venezuela and used online applications to clean money through purchases of properties and luxury items.
However, Yiyi's criminal activity in Venezuela was concentrated in Zulia, not in Aragua. Its organization was involved in extortion programs and grenade attacks against shrimp agricultural businesses and stores in the Cañada de Urdaneta municipality. The group was known for Use of social media Send intimidating messages to its victims and rival criminals in competition for illicit profits in areas near Lake Maracaibo.
And Yiyi was not the only criminal wrongly linked to Tren from Aragua.
In January 2025, Berado Enrique Atencio Padilla, alias “Chocolate”, was arrested in Bucaramanga, Colombia, and Tagged by the authorities As a thirteen chief of Aragua responsible for trafficking networks of migrants from Venezuela to the Ecuador.
Atencio Padilla, who had no influence in Aragua or in other states where Tren de Aragua operates in Venezuela, was sought by the authorities to be one of the main criminal figures of Zulia and the successor of El Chamut in the municipalities of Jesús Enrique Lossada and Maracaibo.
Insight Crime could not independently confirm any regional link between the gangs of Zulia and Tren of Aragua beyond official declarations. In Venezuela, their relationship seems to be that of rival groups in competition for various criminal economies, without proof of an alliance between them.
“”I can tell you something interesting: Tren de Aragua has never been able to settle in Zulia. He developed throughout Venezuela, but not in Zulia, “said Briceño.
