Dozens of suspected Venezuelan violent Trent de Alagua (TDA) gang members have been arrested at major U.S.-Canada border crossings since President Donald Trump's inauguration in January.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to Fox News digital numbers that agents at Ambassador Bridge, which connects to Canada, arrested 40 TDA members between January 20, 2025 and March 21, 2025.
The bridge has long been a pressure point for both American and Canadian citizens to drive confusing road signs, but tricky turns have inadvertently become the occupying point for violent gang members.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) of the Michigan Immigration Rights Center and Michigan ACLU, first issued an alarm. She said he quoted CBP as saying that 90% of detainees were unintentionally driven to the bridge, which is usually caused by signage or GPS errors caused.
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Immigrants were seen crossing the northern border. (Customs and border protection)
The CBP noted that they did not support intelligence related to Trump’s border policy and TDA’s bridge concerns, but former DEA agents said the TDA was shifting gears as it intensified crackdown on narcotic rings.
Inmates with tattoos with MS-13 gangs looked at their cells from their cells, when U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem looked up at the terrorist incarceration center (CECOT) from Tecoluca in El Salvador on March 26, 2025. (Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP)
Michael Brown, currently the global director of anti-drug technology for Rigaku Analytics equipment, attributes to the transformation of gang members driven by the resurrection of Trump-era law enforcement policies that are sending shockwaves through gang networks.
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"As a TDA member, I don't want to end up in El Centro," Brown said. "Then where are they going? Canada. They know they won't have the same consequences there."
December 18, 2023: Immigrants pour into Eagle Pass, Texas, pending processing. (Fox News)
Brown traces the rise of the U.S. TDA to what he calls the Biden administration’s “open policy” that allows criminal immigrants to gain a foothold in cities across the United States.
"Sanitation cities provide a political cover," Brown said. "Because the mayor and governor are reluctant to acknowledge the growing threat."
He said Detroit is a long-term drug distribution hub and becomes a logical launching point for the gang's business. The group has linked up with violent gang networks such as Crips, Blood and Latin Kings.
The Ambassador Bridge spans the Detroit River, connecting Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan on Friday, April 10, 2020. (Tara Walton for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Brown warned that Canada's progressive attitude towards narcotics, including safe injection sites in provinces such as British Columbia and government-supplied hydrogen pills, made it a cartel's main destination.
“Canada’s informal open policy to criminal organizations is nothing new,” he said, noting that the Hell Angels, the Italian Mafia and the Asian Triad have been operating in cities such as Montreal and Vancouver. “What you never heard of is being knocked down because they have figured out how to operate inside the system.”
"They underestimated the beginning of a few people. But, like the virus, it spreads quickly - if it doesn't stop early, it will move into the national crisis."
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Brown fears that the arrival of TDA will not only increase the operations of Canada's already dangerous fentanyl and methamphetamine labs, but will also attract more attention from U.S. authorities and may trigger a turf war.
"It's not random," he said. "The TDA is not sending buses to Canada. They are deploying Boy Scouts, forming alliances, securing territory. If they find a foothold, then floods will appear."