A new report is confirming what President Donald Trump has stated for months: the Venezuelan government is weaponizing criminal gangs and sending foreign terrorists into the U.S. According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assessment shared with Fox News, Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolás Maduro and his deputies are using criminals from the Tren de Aragua (TdA) transnational gang as “proxies” to “destabilize” foreign nations, including Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the U.S. The FBI anticipates that TdA members the Venezuelan government has sent to the U.S. will, within the next six to 18 months, begin targeting and killing other Venezuelan nationals who have been opponents or critics of Maduro’s administration.

“These findings should shock Americans but not the law enforcement community,” an unnamed Trump administration official commented to Fox News. He added, “They reflect the sentiments of numerous other intelligence assessments across multiple agencies.” The official stated, “Nicholas [sic] Maduro is a Marxist dictator who hijacked a once-prosperous Venezuela and brought in nothing but total economic collapse and gang takeover. He crumbled Caracas, now overrun with drugs and violence, and wants to do the same across the United States by sending his most violent and dangerous criminals into our communities.” He continued, “The Trump administration will continue to use every authority in our power to make sure these TdA terrorists, who are some of the worst in the world, are kept out of our country.”

An official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed that the Venezuelan government is actively “aiding and abetting” TdA and offering the criminal organization “sanctuary.” TdA leadership, the ODNI official said, has often been “located” in Venezuela and has “broadly benefited from conditions in Venezuela created by the Venezuelan government.” Venezuela’s government has also “been eager to welcome violent TdA criminals back to Venezuela, providing further proof they see them as allies. Again, this mirrors the behavior of the Taliban in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern failed states like Syria and Libya that have welcomed terrorists with open arms,” the official said.

According to a report from the Associated Press, the contents of a National Intelligence Council assessment seemingly contradict the FBI’s and ODNI’s findings, claiming that there is no link between Maduro’s government and TdA. The unnamed ODNI official clarified that the FBI’s and ODNI’s recent assessments are more “robust and accurate given their focus on domestic security and crimes, versus limited intelligence assessments from other intelligence elements who by law focus solely on foreign intelligence collection and who, until President Trump took office, had very limited resources focused on TdA.” The official said that the Associated Press report was based on information from “illegal leakers” and said that “propaganda media conveniently did not include [more accurate intelligence] because it gets in the way of their biased narrative and attempt to deceive the American people.”

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard also criticized the Associated Press report, as well as the intelligence officers responsible for leaking classified information. “The weaponization of intelligence to undermine the President’s agenda is an assault on democracy. Those behind this illegal leak of classified intelligence, twisted and manipulated to convey the exact opposite finding, will be held accountable under the full force of the law,” Gabbard said in a social media post. She continued, “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence fully supports the assessment that the foreign terrorist organization, Tren De Aragua, is acting with the support of the Maduro Regime, and thus subject to arrest, detention and removal as alien enemies of the United States.”

In late February, the State Department formally classified TdA as a foreign terrorist organization. A few weeks later, the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 to target Venezuelan nationals affiliated or associated with TdA for arrest and deportation. In his invocation, the president stated that TdA is “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States” by “commit[ing] brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking.”

“TdA is closely aligned with, and indeed has infiltrated, the Maduro regime, including its military and law enforcement apparatus,” the president announced. He continued, “Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”

Earlier this week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that nearly 30 TdA leaders and members had been charged with crimes under Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The 27 TdA members were charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, robbery, and firearms offenses. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press release, “Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang — it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities.”

Most of the TdA members charged in the indictment have been operating in New York City, illegally trafficking women into the city from Venezuela and Peru and forcing them into prostitution, committing murders and armed robberies, and flooding the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx with a “pink powdery drug” called “tusi,” which contains ketamine. TdA gangsters in New York also relied on violence to combat rival gangs and hunt down and execute former TdA members, especially those who had joined splinter groups.

Shortly afterwards, the DOJ announced terrorist charges against a TdA leader for the first time. Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, alleged to be a high-ranking TdA officer, was charged with supporting and conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, largely through the sale of large quantities of cocaine. Bondi commented, “TdA is not a street gang — it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration.” FBI Director Kash Patel added, “TdA is a direct threat to our national security, to our communities, and to Americans.” He further pledged to “eliminate this violent terrorist organization from our streets.”