Venezuelan Gang May be Linked to 'Execution-Style' Killing in Connecticut

STAMFORD, Conneticut -- At the hotel in Stamford, police say they encountered a bloody scene.

Angel Samaniego, a 59-year-old Stamford resident, was found sitting in a chair, his arms and legs duct-taped. He had been beaten, suffering blunt-force trauma to his head, a medical examiner ruled, and had been fatally shot in the chest, according to the warrants for two people arrested in connection with the Oct. 13 homicide. Investigators believe the person who pulled the trigger used a pillow to stifle the noise of the gunshot, the warrants said.

A housekeeper at the hotel, the Super 8 on the city's West Side, found Samaniego some 12 hours after two people were seen leaving the hotel with two children in tow, court documents said.

The pair, Moises Alejadro Candollo-Urbaneja, 22, and Gregory Marlyn Galindez-Trias, 24, were arrested a few days later in a city outside of Albany, N.Y. According to their arrest warrant affidavits, the couple were in possession of a bloodstained note with Samaniego's credit card information. Police allege the pair also made off with Samaniego's car, which investigators said ended up in Detroit, Mich.

"There is certainly, at this point, a strong suspicion that this defendant participated in what this court would describe as an execution," Judge Kevin Randolph said during Candollo-Urbaneja's arraignment in state Superior Court in Stamford this week.

Candollo-Urbaneja and Galindez-Trias are not facing homicide-related charges, and police have not said if they were involved with the man's death or how they knew him.

Before they were extradited to Connecticut, the couple were arraigned in upstate New York following their arrest. During her hearing in New York, Galindez-Trias expressed concern about the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Speaking through a Spanish court translator, Galindez-Trias said she was afraid of what the gang might do because she was arrested.

Stamford police have not said if the gang was connected with the hotel homicide. But Galindez-Trias' comments in court have raised concerns for some in Connecticut. In a statement, state Republicans characterized the group as "one of the most brutal and inhumane terrorist groups."

What is Tren de Aragua?

Federal authorities have named the gang as a " Significant Transnational Criminal Organization." The group started as a prison gang in the Tocorón Prison in Aragua, Venezuela, a coastal state in the north of the country to the west of the capital city of Caracas.

"Over the past six years, Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero has expanded the group's criminal network throughout South America and recently extended north into Central America and the United States," the U.S. Department of State and Department of Justice said in a news release in July.

The New York Police Department said they have been seeing more crimes, including sex trafficking, drugs and robberies, connected with the gang. Most notably, the shooting of two NYPD officers in June was traced to the gang, NBC reported.

"They have been moving up through Central America and it now has come into the United States," said Ken Gray, a retired FBI special agent and distinguished lecturer in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven. The group was founded in 2009, he said, but only became a problem in the U.S. in the last two years.

The group drew national attention earlier this year when a video of armed men at an apartment in Aurora, Colo., led to claims that Tren de Aragua had taken over the complex. The claim was picked up by former President Donald Trump, who said at a Fox News town hall that Venezuelans were "taking over the whole town," The Associated Press reported.

In an Aug. 28 statement, Aurora police said they were "aware that components of TdA are operating in Aurora," but that based on their investigation, they believed reports of the group's influence were "isolated." Aurora police later announced several arrests of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members.

"They have been moving with migrants as they move up through Central America," Gray said. "Wherever they come into, they establish their dominance as a gang." He said the group is involved in everything from sex and human trafficking to smuggling, extortion and running drugs.

"They are an all resources type gang in that they're busy into just about everything," Gray said.

Colombian and U.S. authorities believe Guerrero, whose proper name is Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero, and Giovanny San Vicente, another leader, are both in Colombia. Johan Petrica, a co-founder of the group identified by authorities, is believed to be in Venezuela.

U.S. officials are offering several million dollars in rewards for information that leads to the arrests of the group's leaders.

'Emerging problem' in U.S.

A 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report from the U.S. state department described the group as "Venezuela's most powerful criminal gang." It and another organization, the National Liberation Army, "operate sex trafficking networks in the border town of Villa del Rosario in the Norte de Santander department," the report said.

The groups exploit migrants and internally displaced Colombians through sex trafficking, and subject the victims to "debt bondage," the report said. The practice refers to imposing a high price that trafficked victims or their relatives must repay in exchange for employment or some other service.

"According to sources, members of El Tren de Aragua gained the trust of their victims by housing them" in Colombia, the report said. The gang provides its victims with food and lets them run up daily debts and, "when they are unable to pay," exploits them into engaging in sex work, the report said. The gang is also alleged to have "marked women and girls behind their ears to prove ownership," the state department report said.

The group is reported to have transported trafficking victims to other countries within Latin America, including Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.

Gray said because the group is dealing with migrants, and sometimes hiding within migrant populations, they are also "interfacing" with cartels.

"This is an emerging problem here in the United States," Gray said.

"They follow the Venezuelan community, and they are attacking the Venezuelan community," he added. "That is, they are the victims of their crimes."

Galindez-Trias and Candollo-Urbaneja, both from Venezuela, so far have only been charged with first-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny, third-degree identity theft, conspiracy to commit identity theft and criminal liability for actions of another.

The couple were arrested in Rensselaer, N.Y., with two children, both of whom have been turned over to the county's child protective services, officials said. One of the children is a U.S. citizen while the other child is from Venezuela, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was notified about the arrests, Rensselaer Police Chief Warren Famiglietti said. ICE placed a notice to hold the couple, the chief said.

Candollo-Urbaneja is scheduled to appear at state Superior Court in Stamford Dec. 17, while Galindez-Trias is scheduled for Dec. 19. Their cases have been transferred to the Part A docket, where the district's most serious matters are heard.

Includes prior reporting by Albany Times Union reporter Kenneth C. Crowe II and Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Pat Tomlinson.

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