Spanish police have detained 13 suspected members of Venezuela’s notorious Tren de Aragua crime gang, which has increasingly come under scrutiny as the United States actively targets and kills what it says are its cadres smuggling drugs on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

The arrests were made across five Spanish cities, police said on Friday. The gang was designated as a global “terrorist organisation” by the US earlier this year.

Police said the arrests took place in Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruna and Valencia in an investigation into the group’s alleged efforts to expand its operations into Spain, where Venezuelans make up one of the largest immigrant communities.

Tren de Aragua was originally formed in Venezuelan prisons and has grown into one of Latin America’

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