The alleged chief of a lethal Venezuelan felony group referred to as “El Turko” was taken off the streets in Los Angeles, on the behest of the Chilean authorities.
Rafael Enrique Gamez Salas, 40, who’s believed to be the ringleader of “Los Piratas,” the Chilean cell of the Venezuelan felony enterprise referred to as Tren de Aragua (TdA), was arrested on Wednesday.
The US Division of Justice introduced the arrest in a press launch on Friday, revealing that he can be extradited to Chile the place he can be prosecuted on seven felony costs.
Salas can be charged with one depend of felony affiliation, two counts of extortion, two counts of unjustified firearm discharge, one depend of kidnapping leading to murder and one depend of kidnapping for extortion, costs which span a number of crimes and victims.
He has been accused of directing a number of kidnappings and extortions for TdA, one in all which was the February 2024 kidnapping and homicide of a Venezuelan navy Lieutenant in Santiago, Chile.
Salas is accused of directing and planning the kidnapping, the place members of Los Piratas impersonated Chilean law enforcement officials and forcibly eliminated the Lieutenant from his house.
The Lieutenant’s physique was found every week later, when a tip finally revealed that he was buried in concrete and located coated in lime.
An intercepted dialog with Salas revealed he had been tasked “from above” to hold out the kidnapping and homicide.
The Chilean authorities additionally alleges that Salas performed a job in an April 2024 confrontation that result in the killing of a Chilean police officer, plus kidnappings in February and June 2024.
Salas has beforehand been convicted in the US for human smuggling and unlawful entry after deportation.
Chilean authorities declare that Salas, who additionally makes use of the alias “Adrian Rafael Gamez Finol,” was concerned in planning many kidnappings, extortions and homicides.
Salas was beforehand deported again to Venezuela from the US in 2023 for getting into the nation illegally, although he subsequently entered the nation illegally as soon as once more.
He was arrested and prosecuted for human smuggling by the Val Verde County District Lawyer’s Workplace in Texas and indicted in February 2025.
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Salas plead responsible in April 2025 and was serving his sentence in Central California when he was arrested on an extradition warrant.
He was ending serving a federal sentence in San Bernadino County when he was arrested by the US Marshal Service (USMS) and remanded into their custody.
The felony appeared earlier than U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Charles F. Eick in Los Angeles on Wednesday earlier than he was returned into federal custody.
“Our nation mustn’t ever change into a refuge for felony unlawful aliens who’re senior members of overseas terrorist organizations,” stated First Assistant United States Lawyer Invoice Essayli.
“We are going to proceed to work intently with our abroad regulation enforcement companions to make sure this defendant will face justice in a Chilean courtroom.”
“This unlawful alien from Venezuela is an alleged chief of the overseas terrorist group TdA,” stated Deputy Lawyer Basic Todd Blanche. “
Whereas in the US, he was convicted of human smuggling and is accused by Chile of heinous violent crimes. This man is a transparent public security risk and may by no means have been on this nation however reentered the US illegally underneath the Biden Administration. The Justice Division, together with our federal and worldwide companions, will proceed to place security and safety first.”
“Rafael Enrique Gámez Salas’s arrest for functions of extradition is proof of the sturdy and ongoing cooperation between the US and our overseas companions to fight transnational crime, dismantle overseas terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua and maintain members accountable for his or her heinous felony acts,” stated Assistant Lawyer Basic A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Division’s Legal Division.
“The US just isn’t a protected haven for harmful felony aliens. Because of the Legal Division’s Workplace of Worldwide Affairs, which labored extensively with Chilean authorities over the past 12 months to acquire the details and proof essential to provoke these extradition proceedings.”
