US charges 27 alleged Venezuelan gang members

The US Justice Department on Monday announced it was charging 27 people accused of being connected to Venezuelan drug gang Tren de Aragua with an array of serious crimes, including drug conspiracy, sex trafficking and murder.

Acting US Attorney for New York's Southern District Matthew Podolsky said those charged included alleged members, former members, and associates of Tren de Aragua," a gang designated by US President Donald Trump as a "foreign terrorist organization."

Of the 27 defendants, 21 were in federal custody and five more were arrested Sunday and Monday in New York and other jurisdictions, the statement said.

The charges include murder, shootings, human trafficking of women into sex work, extortion and drug trafficking, the department said.

Tren de Aragua became a high-profile target of law enforcement under the Trump administration after the president declared the group a "terrorist" organization and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, saying the United States was facing an "invasion."

Since then, Trump has sent two planeloads of alleged members to a prison in El Salvador on March 15 -- a case that led to a standoff with US courts.

Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not members of Tren de Aragua, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.

Despite facing challenges, the US Supreme Court lifted a lower court order barring the deportations on April 7, handing Trump a long-sought political victory.

The court did note, however, that the deportees must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal -- a requirement that Trump has called unworkable.

"We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years," the US president said in a social media post on Monday.