Paraguay’s National Police (PN) have confirmed that the transnational criminal group Tren de Araguá, originally from Venezuela and designated a terrorist organization by the United States, has already established operations on Paraguayan soil. According to authorities, the faction has begun recruiting local citizens, a conclusion based on the recent capture of one of its members together with two compatriots.
On Tuesday, May 19, agents from the Asunción Investigations Department arrested Diego David Ferreira Barrios, 36, and Jorge David Centurión, 31, both Paraguayans with criminal records, in Luque, Central department. Alongside them, Wilkeison Gabriel Acurero Ochoa, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who reportedly has a police record in his home country, was detained. During the operation, a Toyota Isis van, a Toyota Duet car, and two motorcycles were seized.
The seized vehicles were linked to a recent series of robberies committed by foreigners with Venezuelan accents, focused mainly on stealing Rolex watches. Due to the pattern of the crimes, investigators began calling the group “La banda de los Rolex.” The Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) has opened a formal criminal investigation into the case.
Among the prominent targets are Portuguese businessman Rafael Monteiro Mendes, 45, robbed on May 18 as he entered the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in the Las Lomas neighborhood after being followed from Silvio Pettirossi Airport; and rancher Ignacio Llano Cháves, 42, victim of a similar robbery two days earlier in the same area. In both cases, losses from the watches exceeded $20,000.
Former senator Armando Vicente Espínola Wiezell, 70, was also a victim of this type of crime on May 12. He was tracked from Shopping del Sol to his home in the San Cristóbal neighborhood, where a watch valued at around $25,000 was stolen.
Investigations indicate that the first detection of a Tren de Araguá cell in the country occurred on November 14 of last year in Lambaré, after a shootout with police. At that time, an operational base was identified where 15 members, mostly Venezuelans, were living in precarious conditions. Two of the cell’s leaders, brothers Ángel David and José Francisco Tovar Tovar, arrested and later released in Encarnación in October 2025, are now considered fugitives and identified as heads of the operation in Paraguay.