A VENEZUELAN model, actress and DJ “romantically linked” to the boss of brutal Tren de Aragua cartel has landed in Donal Trump’s radar.
Jimena Romina Araya Navarro, known as Rosita, was reportedly slapped with Treasury sanctions on Wednesday for helping bankroll foreign terror groups.
OFAC officials say the influencer “reportedly helped the notorious head of TdA, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as ‘Niño Guerrero,’” flee the hellish Tocorón prison in 2012.
Rosita, who has millions of followers, has fronted major TV shows and spins house music across Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.
But US investors say her cash, glamour and appearances masked a pipeline funnelling profits straight to Venezuela’s most feared gang.
A Bogota nightclub tied to her ex-bodyman and manager Eryk Manuel Landaeta Hernandez was allegedly used to push drugs and wash cartel money.
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Landaeta Hernandez was arrested in Colombia in October 2024 as the pressure mounted around the TdA network.
Treasury officials say his laundering operation helped channel profits to Niño Guerrero and senior operative Mosquera Serrano, both already sanctioned.
The Treasury sanctions now freeze her out of the US financial system.
“Under President Trump, barbaric terrorist cartels can no longer operate with impunity across our borders,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
He added: “At the direction of President Trump, we will continue to use every tool to cut off these terrorists from the US and global financial system and keep American citizens safe.”
Rosita’s shock romantic history has also raised eyebrows.
In 2012 she dated ex-con Luidig Ochoa after starring in his adult animated series “Jail or Hell.”
Ochoa was reportedly later shot repeatedly by a thief trying to steal his motorcycle.
Rosita then dated Carlos Galíndez, allegedly tied to Venezuelan drug gangs, who was found killed and dismembered in Caracas in 2016.
Pictures of his corpse were allegedly circulated by the convicted nephews of Nicolas Maduro’s wife in an effort to protect Rosita from being murdered too.
Rosita and Landaeta Hernandez were designated for “having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of TdA,” OFAC said.
Their firms – Maiquetia VIP Bar Restaurantare and Global Import Solutions S.A. – were also sanctioned and stripped of access to the US market.
OFAC additionally targeted Kenffersso Jhosue Sevilla Arteaga, known as “El Flipper,” who was arrested in Colombia in November 2025 as Niño Guerrero’s right-hand man.
Sanctions also hit TdA operators Richard Jose Espinal Quintero, Noe Manases Aponte Cordova, Asdrubal Rafael Escobar Cabrera, and the boss’s half-brother Cheison Royer Guerrero Palma.
US intelligence claims Venezuelan officials helped TdA members migrate illegally to America to “destabilize governments and undermine public safety.”
Gang members later scattered across 16 states under the Biden administration, committing crimes ranging from petty theft to drug trafficking and human smuggling.
In February, Washington formally listed TdA as a foreign terrorist organisation alongside MS-13.
Tren de Aragua – the bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang now flooding Spanish hotspots with “pink cocaine” – has become one of America’s top targets.
Spanish police last week revealed they had smashed the gang’s first European outpost as it tried to expand into Madrid.
Members were selling drugs, including Tusi – the “pink cocaine” loved by British partygoers – in areas packed with UK tourists.
More than 100 officers carried out the raids, arresting 13 suspects and seizing marijuana, cocaine and Tusi.
A Madrid police chief told The Sun: “I can’t say exactly where the drugs were being sold because it’s very important information we need to keep to ourselves for future investigations.”
He said Spain’s near one-million Venezuelan population made it prime ground for TdA to hide, extort and recruit.
The officer warned: “We have no evidence pointing to them being anywhere else in Europe at the moment – but we know they will try to recover from this setback.”
Operation Interciti was launched after the arrest in Barcelona of Niño Guerrero’s brother.
A senior counter-terror chief told The Sun: “This unit was set up principally to help combat terrorism and threats from the likes of ETA and Islamic extremists.”
He added: “Speaking to law enforcement agencies like the FBI they’ve impressed on us organisations like Tren de Aragua can’t be treated like normal organised criminal gangs.”
Police say they dismantled the cell before it sparked cartel turf wars or infiltrated institutions through corruption and intimidation.
Four alleged cell leaders – Venezuelans in their twenties and thirties – are now behind bars in Madrid and Barcelona.
Spanish police on Wednesday also arrested a female fugitive wanted by Chile over a vast anti-money-laundering probe.
She was found hiding in Molina de Segura near Murcia – around an hour from Benidorm.
Chilean prosecutors say she handled accounts that received dirty money before transferring it to a TdA front company.
Police say the transfers totalled around $138million.
Tren de Aragua was founded in 2014 inside Tocorón prison, a notorious inmate-run complex that boasted a zoo, restaurants, bars and even a golf course.
More than 11,000 troops stormed the prison in 2023, but Niño Guerrero escaped and remains on the run.
Journalist Ronna Risquez says TdA now runs around 20 criminal enterprises, including illegal mining and online gambling.
Experts say the gang launders profits through crypto and restaurant fronts, mirroring tactics of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Mexican officials recently captured alleged high-ranking member Nelson Arturo Echezuria Alcantara and two of his lieutenants.
Security specialist David Saucedo said: “They have evolved now to a point where they are almost operating as companies who’ll do whatever it takes to pay their employees’ salaries and bribes to local authorities.”
He added that drug seizures and arrests barely dent cartel finances, saying: “They take it for granted there will be a percentage of confiscation.”