Colombian Police Arrested ‘El Pilo’ and Tren de Aragua Trafficking Affiliates in Riohacha

his article, produced by the Venezuelan Investigation Unit, was originally published by InSight Crime, a Medellín-based foundation dedicated to the investigation and analysis of crime and security in Colombia and Latin America.

The capture in Colombia of a leader of a faction of the Venezuelan mega-gang, Tren de Aragua, has highlighted the organization’s little-known role in drug trafficking.

Photo: Colombian police arrested Carlos Antonio López Centeno, alias “El Pilo,” and 10 other Venezuelans in Riohacha. (Credit: Policia Nacional de Colombia)

Colombian police arrested Carlos Antonio López Centeno, alias “El Pilo,” along with ten other Venezuelans in the municipality of Riohacha, La Guajira department, in northern Colombia, on March 9.

Investigations by Colombian police and prosecutors showed that the group planned to pick up 3 tons of marijuana that they intended to traffic across the border to Venezuela. Police also seized multiple weapons, grenades, an armored vehicle, and 10 kilograms of marijuana during the arrest.

“This criminal group is directly associated with the Tren de Aragua, a criminal outsourcing that is trying to enter the country to traffic drugs from the north of the country … to Venezuela,” said Nicolás Alejandro Zapata Restrepo, deputy director general of the Colombian National Police, at a press conference.

El Pilo was a well-known member of the gang. He had been held in Tocorón, the infamous prison in Venezuela’s Aragua state that served as Tren de Aragua’s center of operations until it was taken over by Venezuelan security forces in September 2023. From the prison, he oversaw the coordination of the organization’s clandestine operations in Güiria, a coastal town in Venezuela’s northeastern state of Sucre.

InSight Crime Analysis

The exposure of Tren de Aragua’s business on Colombian soil indicates that the gang’s criminal portfolio in the region is expanding, especially its involvement in large-scale drug trafficking.

Although authorities and intelligence reports accessed by InSight Crime confirmed the gang’s involvement in drug trafficking, there have been no previous prosecutions, nor suggestions, that it is involved in the trafficking of such large quantities of drugs.

In Sucre, Tren de Aragua’s operations have consisted of monitoring vessels smuggling people and drugs, extorting money from local merchants and producers, and finding human trafficking victims.

A local lawyer who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals explained to InSight Crime that the group also provides security services to drug boats.

However, the discovery of the plan to traffic 3 tons of marijuana is a game-changer in the gang’s criminal development, providing evidence of its steps into the regional drug trade.

According to the 2023 anti-drug report by Venezuela’s National Anti-Drugs Superintendence (Superintendencia Nacional Antidrogas – SUNAD), the Paria Peninsula in Sucre is under the domain of the Tren de Aragua and has become a key maritime corridor for the transnational transfer of drugs coming from Colombia, specifically from La Guajira.

The trafficking of marijuana from Venezuelan shores has been increasing in recent years. In 2022, a 1.5-ton shipment of marijuana that had come from Venezuela was seized in Martinique.

This article, produced by the Venezuelan Investigation Unit, was originally published by InSight Crime, a Medellín-based foundation dedicated to the investigation and analysis of crime and security in Colombia and Latin America.