Key Takeaways
Spain’s Nationwide Police caught 6 Tren de Aragua members over a €1.3M crypto theft, with 3 jailed subsequent.Harming market security, Tren de Aragua stole €1.3M in crypto, forcing Spain to subsequent prosecute 6 suspects.Following 2024 OFAC crypto sanctions, the US labeled Tren de Aragua an FTO to subsequent block international laundering.
Spain’s Nationwide Police cracks down on Tren de Aragua-linked prison group
Spain’s Nationwide Police have dismantled a company that focused high-profile people holding jewels, money, and cryptocurrency.
On Thursday, the police revealed the arrest of 6 people who have been allegedly a part of this group, which had ties to the Venezuelan prison group Tren de Aragua. Nationwide Police began an investigation into this group in August 2025, analyzing a home theft in Madrid. On this occasion, €1.5 million in jewels and watches and €1.3 million in cryptocurrency have been stolen.
A number of the people, already in police custody, have been concerned in related thefts, the place victims have been tied, gagged, and held at gunpoint to power them to surrender their crypto and fiat cash holdings, utilizing continued violence as a instrument to attain these functions.
The police report signifies that in a single occasion, as a sufferer resisted, a gunshot was fired, placing the sufferer’s life in jeopardy.
Brokers indicated that the group first studied its targets, deciding on solely high-profile people who have been put beneath surveillance after which coerced to fulfill in trip residences for various causes.
The group is now going through membership in a prison group, violent theft, illegal detention, fraud, and crimes towards public well being prices. The imprisonment of three of its members has already been ordered.
Tren de Aragua, a prison group of Venezuelan origins, has been singled out for integrating cryptocurrency as a part of its prison instruments, together with crypto theft and crypto cash laundering in its illicit exercise portfolio.
The U.S. Division of State labeled Tren de Aragua as a Overseas Terrorist Group (FTO) and Specifically Designated International Terrorist (SDGT) in February 2025. In 2024, it was sanctioned by the Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) for laundering funds by means of cryptocurrency.
Additionally, in July, Chilean authorities disarmed the related subgroup “Tren del Mar,” which laundered over $13.5 million, taking cues from teams just like the Sinaloa Cartel.
