(NewsNation) — A 37-year-old woman with ties to a Venezuelan gang was charged earlier this year with human trafficking in Texas.
Police say Estefania Primera, also known as “La Barbie,” drugged a woman with fentanyl-laced pills and left her unconscious to be assaulted by paying men. The New York Post reports she used her own children as drug mules — concealing and distributing narcotics.
The woman who says she was repeatedly forced into prostitution by Primera escaped and contacted police.
Investigators then connected Primera to a larger criminal network that operated out of the Gateway Hotel in El Paso, which has since been shut down.
Records show she was booked into El Paso County Jail on Sept. 27, according to NewsNation partner Border Report.
Sources familiar with the confirmed to Border Report that Primera has been linked to Tren de Aragua.
Law enforcement compared her actions to gangs like MS-13 due to Primera’s brutal methods and hierarchical structure. Her unique use of social media to show off her criminal lifestyle as glamorous underscored the gang’s methods of infiltrating communities, according to police.
Although Primera was supposed to be monitored by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since crossing the border in 2023, she removed her ankle monitor and essentially vanished from the system shortly after arriving.
