FABIOLA GALINDO: How can the NYPD verify that they are a person who belongs to the Tren de Aragua gang, and not just any common criminal?
JOSEPH KENNY, NYPD CHIEF OF DETECTIVES: Unless they self-admit and say “I am a member of TdA” or we look at their social media and they’re throwing up hand signs indicating an affiliation with TdA or through our investigative steps we can find that they’re from TdA, we just don’t blanket people.
GALINDO: The (NYPD Chief of Detectives) says that one of the biggest complications in this fight is that they can't ask detainees about their immigration status due to sanctuary city laws. We asked him if they have seen express kidnappings (such as those) carried out by TdA in other countries.
KENNY: Not kidnappings. We have seen acts of violence, we have seen people shot. They- they, we had a 15-year-old, you know, migrant shoot at us in Times Square.
GALINDO: Authorities do not rule out that the Venezuelan gang is also involved in human trafficking, forcing migrant women into prostitution.