Eight subjects associated with the Tren del Llano were captured during Operation Zaraza 2024 that is being carried out in the state Guaricoaccording to military sources.
In the La Cabrera sector, José Félix Ribas municipality (Tucupido), five people were arrested and seized from them a 12-gauge shotgun, an offensive grenade, an AK-103 magazine, fifty-three rifle cartridges (7.62X39 mm and 7.62X51 mm), three 12-gauge cartridges, a radio transmitter and two telephone sets, according to a report from the National Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Command No. 34.
The detainees are: Otoniel David Ramos Hernandez, Agustin Rafael Guaporu Guerra, Jesus Alejandro Seijas Farias, Luis Ramon Ramos Hernandez and Genesis del Valle Duarte Andrade.
And in the Morochero sector, El Socorro municipality, the military seized a 16-caliber shotgun, twenty-six rifle cartridges, a smoke grenade and a telephone set.
All this material was in the possession of Aquiles José Armas Fernández, Ángel Gabriel Gamarra Arteaga and José Gabriel Rojas Blanca, classified as members of the band founded by Yohani Machuca (The Pepon), which was shot down in the early hours of Tuesday, August 6, during the start of Operation Zaraza 2024.
The aforementioned police-military deployment began due to the participation of the Tren del Llano and its cells in activities of public order disturbance carried out by these groups in the municipalities of José Tadeo Monagas (Altagracia de Orituco) and Leonardo Infante (Valle de la Pascua), among others.
In San Francisco de Macaira, for example, the leader of the Tren del Llano gang, Oscar de Jesús Noguera Hernández (El Diente) and his associates surrounded an educational establishment where there were military agents whom they ordered to hand over their weapons, radios and other supplies, according to a video that the same criminal organization released on Tuesday, July 30.
While El Pepón and his criminal gang offered in sectors of Zaraza the recipe of the Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar: “money or lead”, to tip the vote on July 28 in favor of the candidate allied to María Corina Machado, Edmundo González, according to intelligence reports.
Both criminal groups are traditionally dedicated to collecting taxes in dollars from medium and small producers in Guárico.
The detainees were handed over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office where proceedings were opened against them for illegal possession of firearms, illegal possession of war material and criminal association.
