Venezuelan authorities reported that a new group of 175 migrants deported by the United States arrived in the country on Sunday. Among them was a gang leader, marking the first time Caracas has officially confirmed that a criminal was included in the deportations. Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has intensified immigration enforcement, deporting hundreds of people to Latin America whom his administration labels as “gangsters.”

“For the first time, in these flights… someone of weight arrives who has been claimed by the Venezuelan justice system,” said Diosdado Cabello, the Interior Minister.

A minister clarified that the individual in question was not associated with Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that Washington has designated as a “foreign terrorist organisation” and claims includes many of the deported Venezuelan migrants.

Diosdado Cabello welcomed the deported migrants at Maiquetía International Airport, which serves Caracas. “He belongs to a gang from Trujillo state, the gang… El Cagon,” Cabello stated but did not provide further details about the individual's identity.

Cabello stated that none of the migrants sent back to Venezuela so far were linked to the Tren de Aragua gang.

Venezuela and the United States had severed diplomatic ties in 2019 but reached an agreement in January to allow deportation flights. However, this cooperation was briefly halted for a month after Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry. Flights resumed last week after the pause.

Sunday’s flight marked the third arrival since deportations restarted. In total, 918 people have been deported from the US to Venezuela. Additionally, 553 migrants have returned from Mexico, though it remains unclear whether they had been initially expelled from US territory.

On Saturday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stated that the United States had transferred 324 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. However, he noted that no official list of names had been provided.

The United Nations estimates that nearly eight million Venezuelans have left the country to escape an economic crisis, which began improving in 2021.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government claims that over 1.2 million migrants have returned.