In pics | Venezuela sends over 11,000 troops to regain control of gang-run prison with pool and zoo

On Thursday (September 21), Venezuelan authorities showed off dozens of Bitcoin mining machines, guns with bucketloads of bullets, rocket launchers and grenades a day after a regaining control of the prison overrun by a powerful gang.

The operation included more than 11,000 police and soldiers, backed up by tanks and armored vehicles who stormed the Tocoron prison in the north-central state of Aragua, which served as the headquarters for the Tren de Aragua gang.

Tocoron prison was a haven for these gang members who had built hotel-like amenities like a pool, restaurant and a mini zoo for themselves.

According to reports, the Tocoron prison facility had long served as the headquarters for the Tren de Aragua gang whose operations were not just limited to Venezuela but also present in other Latin American countries.

"There will be no impunity. We will go against all the criminals and accomplices," Interior and Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos told reporters, as quoted by AFP.

He also went on to hail "a "successful operation that allowed us to strike a blow against criminal groups." 

The government, on Wednesday, congratulated law enforcement officers for regaining "total control" of the prison and said that the operation had "dismantled a centre of conspiracy and crime".

Ceballos also reported the death of one soldier who was killed in the operation, which had been planned for more than a year. 

Four prison guards were arrested as suspected accomplices of gang members who had lived it up behind bars, said Ceballos. The Venezuelan government has also evacuated its 1,600 inmates to other locations. Ceballos told state broadcaster VTV that the inmates were being transferred to another facility. 

According to reports, the prison boasted gang-installed amenities such as a zoo, a pool, gambling rooms, a disco, a baseball field and a restaurant. Not to mention some inmates were also living inside the prison with their wives or girlfriends, who were kicked out during the operation.

But that was not case for everyone as Ceballos said the gang leaders had mistreated other prisoners and kept them in "a kind of slavery."

According to a report by the news agency AFP, Tren de Aragua is Venezuela's most powerful home-grown gang and is found to be involved in crime countrywide.

Since its emergence a decade ago has spread its tentacles to neighbouring nations: Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia.

The report citing an investigation by Venezuelan journalist Ronna Risquez, has some 5,000 members.

Some of the crimes the gang is reportedly involved including kidnappings, robberies, drug trafficking, prostitution, extortion and illegal gold mining. 

However, according to InSight Crime think tank the gang is also a major player in migrant smuggling.

According to the Venezuelan interior minister, law enforcement personnel seized sniper rifles, explosives, rocket launchers and grenades as well as drugs like cocaine and marijuana. 

The police also seized many expensive motorbikes. At a press conference outside the Tocoron prison, authorities displayed buckets of bullets, heaps of machine gun ammunition belts and machines used to mine the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

According to a report by AFP, dozens of relatives of the inmates who had been living inside the prison with sentenced inmates were seen outside for the news. "I am waiting to hear where they are taking my husband... I was living in there, but they kicked us out," Gladys Hernandez told AFP. 

An AFP team saw security officers carrying motorcycles, televisions, air conditioners and microwaves out of the jail. "That's ours!" shouted one of the women outside.

"Where is my son?" cried Doris Colmenares, as per AFP, who said he had escaped during Wednesday's raid but turned himself in shortly thereafter. 

As mentioned earlier, the so-called prison boasted gang-installed amenities such as a zoo, a pool, gambling rooms, a disco, a baseball field and a restaurant, according to an investigative journalist recently interviewed by AFP. 

Venezuelan journalist and author of the book, Tren de Aragua: The gang that revolutionised organised crime in Latin America Ronna Risquez told the news agency how the gang "took advantage" of Venezuela's economic and political crises over the past decade to expand operations and is now present in at least eight other Latin American countries. 

Tocoron had been entirely in the hands of the gang, said Risquez. "Inside, the men I have seen with guns are prisoners belonging to the organization. They guard the prison but not for the state," she added. 

Risque also went on to describe the prison as a "hotel" for the gang leaders, with a bank, baseball field, a restaurant and even a disco.

The undated image purportedly shows a swimming pool inside the Tocoron prison (Photo credit: @MichelBaljet)

While the Venezuelan officials hailed the operation that helped them regain control of the Tocoron prison, it appears that some inmates escaped during the operation, as a later government statement announced a "second phase" of the operation for the "search and capture" of "fugitive criminals."

It was also not immediately clear if the gang's leader, Hector Guerrero Flores, who was serving a 17-year sentence in prison for murder and drug trafficking was detained or not. 

The so-called prison also had a small zoo complete with flamingos and an ostrich, reported BBC, adding that the inmates could also place bets on horse races, arrange loans at a makeshift bank and also had a nightclub dubbed "Tokio".

The undated image purportedly shows the small zoo that the prison was gang's 'hotel-like' prison was fitted with. (Photo credit: @MichelBaljet)