The United States on Thursday, November 5, 2026, put rewards totalling up to $50 million on the three top leaders of Tren de Aragua (TdA), the Venezuelan-born gang the Trump administration has designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced the offers in coordination with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department, under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. All three men are fugitives, and all three are charged in a federal case in the Southern District of Texas, in Houston.

Source: U.S. Department of State press statement, November 5, 2026

Who the three men are

Yohan Jose Romero, 48, known as “Yohan Petrica”; Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, 37, known as “Giovanni” and “El Viejo”; and Juan Gabriel Rivas Nunez, 44, known as “Juancho”. Mosquera Serrano is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List, the agencies said, and Romero and Rivas Nunez are also fugitives. The rewards are paid for information leading to their arrests and/or convictions in any country — the men do not have to be caught in the United States for a tip to qualify.

The charges are allegations, not convictions. The three were previously charged in a 2025 six-count second superseding indictment in the Southern District of Texas with conspiring to provide, providing, and attempting to provide material support to Tren de Aragua. A nine-count third superseding indictment was returned in July 2026 and unsealed this week. In those indictments, Mosquera Serrano is also charged with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine and with international cocaine distribution. Each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

What officials said on November 5

“Since President Trump returned to office, the Department of Justice has charged more than 350 members and associates of Tren de Aragua, including Yohan Petrica, El Viejo, and Juancho,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Their criminal enterprise has spread fear, violence, and lawlessness, and we will not stop until those responsible are brought to justice. Anyone with information regarding the location of the three individuals listed in today's superseding indictment should help save lives by notifying the FBI.”

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said the case shows “unprecedented coordination and intelligence sharing across federal law enforcement” through the Homeland Security Task Force, and that Romero, Mosquera Serrano and Rivas Nunez “have played key roles in directing and expanding Tren de Aragua's operations throughout the Western Hemisphere”. Under Secretary of State Thomas G. DiNanno, citing Secretary Marco Rubio, called transnational criminal and terrorist organisations “the most urgent security threat in our hemisphere”. U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz of the Southern District of Texas said: “These gang members are monsters, and we've indicted them as such. I'm confident the enhanced bounties will incentivize these terrorists' return to my district, where we will bring them to justice.” Those are the officials' characterisations; the underlying charges remain to be proven at trial.

Background: what Tren de Aragua is

Tren de Aragua is a violent transnational criminal organisation that originated as a prison gang in Venezuela in the mid-2000s and has since expanded across the Western Hemisphere and established a presence inside the United States, according to the DEA. Federal officials say its activities range from drug trafficking and firearms trafficking to sex trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, theft, fraud and extortion, with murder and assault used to advance the enterprise. Investigators also say the organisation built a separate revenue stream from financial crimes against U.S. institutions, including ATM “jackpotting” attacks — forcing cash machines to dispense money — that the investigation links to attacks in 47 states, the District of Columbia and several foreign countries.

Source: Drug Enforcement Administration release, November 5, 2026

Two federal machines sit behind this case. Joint Task Force Vulcan was created in 2019 to eradicate MS-13 and has now expanded to target Tren de Aragua, drawing in U.S. Attorney's Offices across the country, the Justice Department's National Security and Criminal Divisions, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the ATF, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The prosecution is also part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, and its Houston arm — FBI, HSI, DEA, Texas Department of Public Safety, Houston Police Department, Harris County Sheriff's Office, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Department of Transportation and IRS Criminal Investigation — works under the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, which leads the prosecution.

The investigation itself is being run jointly by the FBI and DEA, with the Houston Police Department, the Harris County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Colombian National Police and Colombia's Attorney General's Office (Fiscalia General de la Nacion), plus the Justice Department's offices in Bogota. The case is prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey N. MacDonald and Anibal J. Alaniz for the Southern District of Texas, together with Joint Task Force Vulcan Deputy Director David C. Smith and Trial Attorneys James Keller and Kelly McGann.

What happens next

The three men remain at large, and the November 5 step is a manhunt tool, not a court ruling: the government is raising the price of information. If any of the three is arrested — in the United States or abroad — he would be brought before the federal court in the Southern District of Texas to face the material-support and, in Mosquera Serrano's case, cocaine charges. For Houston and Harris County, whose police and sheriff's deputies are inside the task force, the case is a local one as much as a national one: the indictment sits in their courthouse, the tip line carries a Houston number, and the district's U.S. Attorney has publicly promised to try the men there if they are caught.