A Venezuelan model, actress and DJ who is reportedly “romantically linked” to the leader of the vicious “Tren de Aragua gang” was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list on Wednesday. The Office of Foreign Assets Control identified Jimena Romina Araya Navarro, better known as Rosita, a Venezuelan model with millions of social‑media followers, as one of the entertainers who helped launder money for the group. Treasury officials also claim Rosita assisted Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores—who goes by “Niño Guerrero” and is believed to have once been her lover—in escaping from Tocorón prison in 2012.
Rosita’s career has included starring in popular Spanish‑language television series and working as a DJ, spinning electronic house music across Colombia and Mexico, according to an examination of her online profiles. However, much of the cash generated from this glamorous lifestyle is alleged to have been funneled to Venezuela’s most notorious gang. Revenue from her shows at a Bogotá nightclub run by former body‑guard and manager Eryk Manuel Landaeta Hernandez was reportedly used to facilitate drug sales for “Tren de Aragua” and to launder money for Niño Guerrero and another senior gang leader, Mosquera Serrano, who has already been sanctioned by OFAC.
Eryk, who was arrested by Colombian authorities in October 2024, operated his club as a front for the gang’s illicit activities, turning the venue into a hub for trafficking and money‑laundering. Both the club, Maiquetía VIP Bar Restaurantare, and Rosita’s company, Global Import Solutions S.A., have now been designated by the Treasury, with all property and interests of the pair blocked from conducting business in the United States or with any U.S.‑owned entities.
While the exact nature of Rosita’s relationship with Guerrero Flores remains murky, the public record shows she has been romantically involved with convicts in the past. In 2012, she appeared in the adult animated series “Jail or Hell,” where she began a short‑lived romance with series creator and former inmate Luidig Ochoa. The relationship ended abruptly after Ochoa was shot by a thief. Years later, Rosita was linked to Carlos Galíndez—suspected of ties to Venezuelan drug cartels—who was killed and dismembered on a Caracas road in 2016. Photographs of his body were allegedly shared by relatives of former First Lady Cilia Flores, according to court documents released by the New York Prosecutor’s Office in 2017.
The sanctions will effectively bar Rosita and Eryk from the U.S. financial system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, “Under President Trump, barbaric terrorist cartels can no longer operate with impunity across our borders. The Tren de Aragua network’s narcotrafficking and human smuggling operations have long posed a grave threat to our nation.” He added that, “At the direction of President Trump, we will continue to use every tool to cut off these terrorists from the U.S. and global financial system and keep American citizens safe.”
In addition to Rosita and Eryk, OFAC sanctioned Kenfuerzo Jhosue Sevilla Arteaga, aka “El Flipper,” a deputy to Niño Guerrero who was detained in Colombia in November 2025 for extortion, kidnapping, and homicide. Other sanctioned individuals include TdA cell leaders and lieutenants Richard Jose Espinal Quintero, Noe Manases Aponte Cordova, Asdrubal Rafael Escobar Cabrera, and Cheison Royer Guerrero Palma, who was expanding the gang’s operations into Chile.
An intelligence assessment released in May alleged that Venezuelan officials have “facilitated” the illegal migration of TdA members into the U.S. to advance what they view as the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing governments and undermining public safety. Under the Biden administration, gang members have spread to at least 16 U.S. states, engaging in activities ranging from petty theft and drug trafficking to extortion and human trafficking. In February, the U.S. State Department designated the group a foreign terrorist organization alongside the Salvadoran gang MS‑13.
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