US Raises Rewards for Three Alleged Tren de Aragua Leaders to Up to $50 Million Combined

Since the Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2025, federal prosecutors have built a case against its top command in Texas. On Thursday, Nov. 5, the Justice Department and State Department put a price on it: rewards of up to $50 million combined for information leading to the arrest or conviction of three alleged leaders.

None of the three is in custody.

The three men and the new numbers

The State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is paying the rewards through its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. The offers cover information from "any country."

• Yohan José Romero, 48, alias "Yohan Petrica": up to $20 million, up from up to $4 million.
• Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, 37, alias "El Viejo": up to $15 million, up from up to $5 million.
• Juan Gabriel Rivas Núñez, 44, alias "Juancho": a new offer of up to $15 million.

The State Department describes Romero as the group's current leader. It says he directs operations that include drug trafficking, illegal gold mining in Venezuela, and the planning of murders and kidnappings.

The department describes the other two as his top lieutenants. Mosquera Serrano oversees operations in the United States, Colombia and Central America. Rivas Núñez runs operations in Venezuela.

Mosquera Serrano is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Romero and Rivas Núñez are also fugitives.

What they are charged with

All three were charged in a 2025 six-count second superseding indictment in the Southern District of Texas. The charges are conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a designated terrorist organization.

A nine-count third superseding indictment was returned in July 2026 and unsealed this week. Mosquera Serrano also faces counts of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute cocaine and of international cocaine distribution.

An indictment is an allegation. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court, and the three have not appeared before a judge to answer the charges.

What officials said

Attorney General Todd Blanche said that since President Trump returned to office, the department "has charged more than 350 members and associates of Tren de Aragua, including Yohan Petrica, El Viejo, and Juancho." He asked anyone who knows where the three are to "help save lives by notifying the FBI."

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz, whose Southern District of Texas office is prosecuting the case, called the three "monsters." He added, "I'm confident the enhanced bounties will incentivize these terrorists' return to my district, where we will bring them to justice."

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said the announcement shows what can be achieved through "unprecedented coordination" among federal agencies. The Justice Department said the case grew out of a Homeland Security Task Force investigation involving the DEA, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation.

The leadership picture

Romero's jump from $4 million to $20 million is the biggest increase of the three. Rivas Núñez had no prior reward.

The group's earlier leader, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as "Niño Guerrero," was killed on June 12, 2026, in a joint U.S.-Venezuelan military airstrike in Bolívar, Venezuela, according to Nigeria's Daily Post. That timeline would put Romero in the top spot only in recent months. The State Department's own release calls him the current leader.

Tren de Aragua formed in Venezuela's Tocorón prison in the mid-2000s. Federal authorities say it has since spread across the hemisphere, drawing income from drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, sex trafficking, weapons trafficking and financial fraud.

What comes next

A reward only matters if someone talks. The offers are structured to pay for information leading to an arrest or conviction, and they apply wherever the men are found. Officials have not said where the three are believed to be hiding or whether any foreign government is assisting in the search.

If any of them is captured, the case moves to the Southern District of Texas, where Reitz's office has said it intends to try them on the nine-count indictment.