Tren de Aragua torture case in King County highlighted by Trump during rally
Apr 30, 2025, 9:00 AM
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Macomb Community College on April 29, 2025 at Warren, Michigan. (Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)
(Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)
President Donald Trump put King County in the spotlight during a rally in Michigan celebrating his first 100 days in office.
While highlighting his immigration policy, the president talked about the brutal gang-related attack against a woman in Burian that occurred in January.
“Two Venezuelan members of Tren de Aragua were arrested in Washington State for kidnapping a 58-year-old woman, driving a power drill through her hand to extort her bank account information, shooting her, leaving her for dead,” Trump said during his rally. “Miraculously, she survived, but she’s not feeling so well.”
Trump was referencing a violent attack when, according to King County prosecutors, three suspects pulled the woman into a vehicle and fired a gun as she struggled. They drove her east toward the Cascade Mountains, all while attempting to access her personal and financial information. Investigators said the suspects used a power drill on the woman’s hand.
“They used a power drill to drill into (the victim’s) hand to get access to her cell phone and bank accounts,” the King County Sheriff’s Office wrote in an arrest report, according to KOMO TV. “They then threatened her by telling her they were going to kill her, kill her family, feed her to the bears, and dump her body far away.”
The woman was driven to a remote stretch of Interstate 90 in Kittitas County, where prosecutors say she was shot and left for dead. Thinking the gunshot had been fatal, the attackers fled the scene.
However, the woman survived, waited for the suspects to leave, then flagged down help. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and later gave detectives a detailed account of the events.
Tren de Aragua
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Two suspects were arrested for torturing, kidnapping, and attempting to kill her. The King County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the FBI, stated that Arnaez-Gutierrez, one of the suspects in custody, has “probable ties to Tren de Aragua.”
Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization from Venezuela, and has become a major target for the Trump Administration. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claimed it has arrested 2,288 gang members from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, 18th Street, and other gangs.
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