A member of the Upper Venezuelan gang captured in Colombia

The alleged chief of the armed wing of the Venezuelan Criminal Gang Tren of Aragua was captured in a joint operation involving Colombia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Colombia national police said José Antonio Márquez Morales – known as Caracas – had been arrested in the city of Valledapar and alleged that he had played a central role in the management of logistics and finance of the group for extortion, drug trafficking and smuggling.

Tren de Aragua was targeted by US President Donald Trump, who said it was a terrorist organization and expelled more than 250 people whom he claimed to be gang members in a prison in El Salvador.

The director of the national police of Colombia, Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán, said that Mr. Márquez Morales has been the subject of an interpol Red opinion which is a request to the police around the world to hold a person awaiting extradition.

The news of the arrest emerged in the middle of continuous tensions between the United States and Venezuela on the anti-traffle efforts of the Trump administration in Latin America.

He deployed warships in the Caribbean and last month, bombed ships which, according to Trump, transported drugs, apparently traveling from Venezuela to the United States.

The Trump administration accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of being in the league with drug cartels and offers a reward for information leading to his capture at $ 50 million (37 million pounds sterling).

Maduro firmly rejected Washington’s charges and defended his government’s actions against drug trafficking.