Nationwide crackdown on violent Venezuelan gang nabs Tri-City drug dealer

A Kennewick resident has been arrested and charged in a nationwide crackdown targeting Tren de Aragua, which the Department of Justice calls a violent foreign terrorist organization.

Jose Luis Baza-Rodriguez, known as “Yonce,” was booked into the Benton County jail April 29 on an arrest warrant issued in Tennessee but has since been moved to other federal custody.

He faces a charge of drug trafficking conspiracy involving more than 500 grams of cocaine, according to federal court documents.

He was among 25 individuals charged in a Homeland Security Task Force operation announced by the Department of Justice this week. Most of those charged were citizens of Venezuela, Colombia and Honduras who were in the United States illegally.

Tren de Aragua has been linked to violent crimes inside and outside the United States, including murder, robbery, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and drug trafficking, according to the Department of Justice.

Members of Tren de Aragua and Anti-Tren also are known to engage in gun trafficking and burglaries of ATM machines, known as “ATM jackpotting.”

Activities are coordinated across state lines and with leaders in South America.

In the most recent operation targeting Tren de Aragua, more than 80 guns and almost 40 pounds of illegal drugs were seized, including fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine MDMA and tusi, a drug that contains ketamine and is sometimes mixed with MDMA.

Investigations related to the operation are continuing.

The charge against the Kennewick resident was filed initially in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court. Other charges were filed in U.S. District courts in Colorado, Southern Florida, Northern Indiana, Middle Tennessee and Western Tennessee.

Baza-Rodriguez was linked to a Nashville, Tenn., area investigation that led to four other arrests of men in the Nashville area and Louisiana. They include suspected associates of Tren De Aragua, or “Anti-Tren,” a splinter faction of the group.

In the alleged criminal ring, Maikel Jesus Albornoz-Jimenez supplied guns and narcotics not only in Tennessee, but facilitated deals across the country, often working with suppliers in other states of drugs or firearms, some of them reported stolen or involved in shootings, according to court documents.

The Kennewick man was a drug supplier, according to federal court documents.

“The seizure of firearms and dangerous narcotics underscores the critical nexus between illegal firearms trafficking and drug-related violence,” said Robert Cekada, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), in a statement.

Links to Venezuela

Baza-Rodriguez was born in Venezuela and is a citizen of Colombia, who entered the United States illegally in the summer of 2023 near Tecate, Calif., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Baza-Rodriguez said in a call recorded by law enforcement in February 2026 that he had Anti-Tren “brothers” in states across the country.

He told a person whose name was redacted in court documents that if that person goes to Venezuela he would receive a warm welcome and be put in touch with the “alma gama” of the organization, evidently referring to criminal leadership, according to court documents.

Federal court documents describe multiple alleged observations of Albornoz-Jimenez purchasing guns and illegal drugs or arranging their purchase.

In late 2025 Albornoz-Jiminez gave a person traveling to Washington state Baza-Rodriguez’s contact information.

That person, accompanied by a Yakima undercover ATF agent, went to a Richland address in December and purchased four ounces of cocaine.

Baza-Rodriguez sold additional cocaine to the original undercover federal agent or others in January, March and April 2026, according to court documents.

Nationwide arrests of the 25 defendants charged in the Tren de Aragua crackdown were made over several days under Joint Task Force Vulcan, according to the Department of Justice.

Joint Task Force Vulcan was created in 2019 to eradicate MS-13, a criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, and has now been expanded to target Tren de Aragua, which started as a prison gang in Venezuela in the mid-2000s.

“This is a massive and impactful takedown of over 25 TdA (Tren de Aragua) terrorists who wreaked havoc on our streets, said Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a statement. “The FBI and our fiercely dedicated federal, state and local partners continue to put criminals trafficking drugs and guns endangering American lives in prison in huge numbers.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 12:39 PM.