Tren del Llano

The Tren del Llano is one of the first large criminal gangs, known locally as megabandas, to emerge in Venezuela.

Its founder and first leader, José Antonio Tovar Colina, alias “El Picure”, was killed in a shootout with Venezuelan security forces, as was his successor, “El Malony”. Today, the group is led by Óscar de Jesús Noguera Hernández, alias “Óscar del Llano” or “El Pipi,” who has focused on resisting security operations after refusing to align with the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Despite the pressure from security forces and successive leadership changes, the Tren del Llano remains a key criminal actor in central Venezuela.

History

The Tren del Llano was born in 2008 out of the Chavista labor movements that built the railway lines between the states of Guárico and Apure. Several of these unions, part of the Bolivarian Workers Union (Unión Bolivariana de Trabajadores – UBT), ended up transforming into criminal structures. Among them was the part led by El Picure, according to relatives of members of the organization who spoke to InSight Crime.

The gang abandoned its labor lobbying and began dedicating itself to stealing vehicles, mostly in the states of Guárico and Aragua. As it grew and gained access to better weapons, it moved into crimes such as kidnapping, contract killings, extortion, and microtrafficking. The criminal group drew the attention of authorities in July 2013, after its members murdered a police officer in the town of El Sombrero, Guárico. Apparently, according to NTN24, they had raided El Picure’s properties days before the officer’s killing.

Another incident that put the gang in the crosshairs of security forces was a massacre in November 2014, when members of the Tren del Llano killed 11 people on a farm in Aragua during a confrontation with a rival group. The episode further raised El Picure’s criminal profile, consolidating him as one of the most wanted criminals in Venezuela.

After an intense search, the leader of the Tren del Llano died in a shootout with security forces in May 2016 during an operation in the town of El Sombrero, in the municipality of Julián Mellado, the organization’s stronghold and El Picure’s birthplace. His death was a major blow to the gang.

The group managed to reorganize in mid-2017 when Gilberto Malony Hernández, alias “Malony,” took over its leadership. Malony had met El Picure in the unions where the Tren del Llano was born and became his lieutenant. However, he was arrested after the kidnapping of a politician linked to the ruling party and was held in several prisons in the country: Coro, San Juan de los Morros, El Dorado, El Rodeo, and finally Tocorón, in the state of Aragua, then under the control of alias “Niño Guerrero,” leader of the Tren de Aragua. He escaped from there eventually and returned to his native Guárico.

Malony established the Tren del Llano’s center of operations in the Tapón de Guanape sector, in the Guatopo National Park, a few kilometers from Altagracia de Orituco, in the municipality of José Tadeo Monagas. He devoted himself mainly to collecting extortion payments, and by 2019 he had consolidated criminal governance, especially in the poorest areas of Altagracia, where he organized occasional parties and distributed gifts on dates such as Children’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas. He acted as a community peacemaker, according to merchants, residents, and relatives of members of the gang who spoke to InSight Crime.

The organization demonstrated its ability to reorganize when it published a video in July 2019, in which several of its members fired shots into the air in Peña de Mota, a sector of Altagracia de Orituco, Guárico state.

In 2020, part of the group moved to the coastal state of Sucre, entering the Gulf of Paria, an important departure point for a cocaine and marijuana trafficking route to the Caribbean. The goal was to expand its criminal economies, according to sources who spoke to InSight Crime.

In November 2021, the Venezuelan government carried out an operation against the Tren del Llano faction in Sucre after the alleged theft of a cocaine shipment belonging to the Cartel of the Suns, a drug trafficking network made up of corrupt military officials. Malony died along with dozens of members of the gang in the operation, and their bodies were buried in mass graves. The authorities did not allow their corpses to be returned to their families.

The gang was left under the command of Malony’s cousin and lieutenant, Óscar de Jesús Noguera Hernández, alias “Óscar del Llano” or “El Pipi.” Its operations were once again restricted to Guárico state.

After what happened in Sucre, the offensives against the megabanda continued. In April 2022, authorities launched a new military campaign called “Operation Thunder” (Operación Trueno) in Altagracia de Orituco, Guárico. During its first incursion, called Operation Thunder I, 800 police officers and soldiers were deployed, who detained dozens of alleged members of the Tren del Llano, as well as people extorted by the gang, who were falsely accused of being collaborators. In August 2022, security forces also killed 13 alleged members of the organization during Operation Thunder III.

Operations against the Tren del Llano continued in March 2023, when the government deployed 1,500 soldiers to track down members of the gang. Military pressure forced the group to abandon Tapón de Guanape and retreat to more remote areas of Guatopo National Park.

Throughout the different phases of Operation Thunder, human rights defenders, activists, and non-governmental organizations documented abuses by security forces, such as arbitrary detentions of citizens not linked to the criminal group.

The most recent deployments against the Tren del Llano, called Operation Zaraza 2024, were carried out after an attack by some of its members against National Guard officers, in protest of the alleged fraud in the July 2024 presidential elections.

Since August 6, 2024, nearly 6,000 soldiers have been deployed by land and air, mainly in the mountainous territories of Guatopo National Park, bordering Miranda state, where the group has taken refuge in recent years, according to police officials who spoke to InSight Crime.

Leadership

El Picure created the Tren del Llano and turned it into one of the most important criminal organizations in the country before his death in 2016.

Malony, who served as lieutenant of a regional branch of the Tren del Llano in Altagracia de Orituco, Guárico state, was El Picure’s successor. He was arrested for kidnapping and held in several Venezuelan prisons until he arrived at Tocorón, in Aragua state, where he managed to escape. After his escape, he assumed leadership of the gang, but he too was killed by security forces in Sucre in 2021.

Months after Malony’s death, one of his possible successors, Carlos José Pirela Armas, alias “Carlitos Pirela,” was found dead in Tucupido, Guárico. He is believed to have been killed by his own men.

Since then, Óscar de Jesús Noguera Hernández, alias “Óscar del Llano” or “El Pipi,” Malony’s cousin, has taken the reins of the Tren del Llano from Altagracia de Orituco. He is currently one of the most wanted criminals in the country.

Geography

The Tren del Llano maintains its center of operations in Guárico state. Its last known location was in the mountainous areas of the Guatopo National Park, between San Francisco de Macaira and the rural communities bordering Miranda state. These lands provide the leaders and still-active members a certain degree of protection from security force incursions. However, recent reports point to a possible displacement toward Tucupido and other rural localities located in northeastern Guárico.

After Malony’s death in 2021, the gang lost the control it had in Sucre, according to relatives of members killed in that operation who spoke to InSight Crime.

In 2024, local media reported that a cell of the Tren del Llano, led by Octavio José Rojas Martínez, alias “El Fiebre,” consolidated its presence in Apure state, especially in San Fernando, a municipality bordering Guárico. Operations were also reported in Pedro Camejo. However, at the beginning of April 2024, the governor of Apure stated that security forces had expelled the organization from the state.

Allies and Enemies

The Tren del Llano and Venezuela’s most important gang, the Tren de Aragua, brokered an agreement to respect each other’s criminal territory, according to an NGO worker and a political leader from Guárico who spoke to InSight Crime. The relationship between the two groups was reportedly forged during the time Héctor Rustherford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” and Malony spent together in Tocorón prison, which for years served as the Tren de Aragua’s operations center.

Its main enemy is the Maduro regime, which has kept it under surveillance since the group refused to follow the rules it has imposed on the criminal underworld. Currently, it is one of the few organizations that, despite openly confronting the state, remains standing.

Outlook

Despite repeated operations, including bombings in small rural communities, security forces have not managed to dismantle the Tren del Llano. Although its members are hiding in the Guatopo National Park, on the border with Miranda state, the gang maintains an active extortion network targeting merchants and agricultural producers in Altagracia de Orituco.

It has also increased the amounts demanded in extortion payments, according to victims who spoke to InSight Crime. The operations have weakened both the leadership and the criminal governance that the Tren del Llano in several areas of Guárico.

But the group has demonstrated an ability to adapt. One of the ways it has managed to resist, and will probably continue to do so, is by regrouping in small cells to be more resilient to security force operations. This strategy, along with the income from extortion, allows it to remain a powerful criminal group in central Venezuela.