| A few highlights for each city — more at the link. |
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Terrifying new research has laid bare how notorious Venezuelan super gang Tren de Aragua's criminal tentacles have spread across America.
Members of the violent migrant gang TdA have crept into the US hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration.
Arrest data shared with DailyMail.com has now revealed that the tattooed gangsters are operating in even more US cities than originally feared - with San Antonio, Texas, the latest hub of activity.
Dubbed the 'epitome of evil' and 'MS-13 on steroids', police investigations showed that the mob is behind a spiraling crime wave across the US, with members accused of murders, violent assaults on cops and sex trafficking women.
'MS-13, they were never organized; Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization from the bottom to the top,' Colorado's former ICE director John Fabbricatore told DailyMail.com.
'These guys right here [in the US] - they're sending money back to leaders in Venezuela. They're set up shop like a corporation - it is the like the mafia. What it took MS-13 to do in like a ten-year period, Tren de Aragua has been able to do in less than a year,' he added.
EL PASO, TEXAS
Texas' largest city to straddle the US-Mexico border has been called the epicenter for TdA activity by state law enforcement officials.
As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, El Paso's Mexican sister city, Juarez, is the gang's new headquarters.
From its base on America's doorstep, gang members move back and forth between the US and Mexico, federal sources tell DailyMail.com.
Texas' sixth largest city, the busiest border crossing for most of 2022 and 2023, has also been used as the entry point for many TdA members.
In March, a rare riot on the border was orchestrated by TdA, in which a migrant mob overwhelmed Texas National Guard members, kicking and overpowering armed soldiers at a border crossing in El Paso, the governor of Texas said.
AURORA, COLORADO
Most of the nation first learned about Tren de Aragua when a video of armed men storming an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, surfaced in late August.
While local leaders initially denied there was a gang problem in the Denver suburb, they later admitted the international crime ring had taken control of additional apartment complexes in the area.
By September, Coffman acknowledged Tren de Aragua was in the city limits, but continued to claim their presence was isolated to just those three apartments.
However, a July 3 letter to the city manager obtained by DailyMail.com detailed a meeting between the Aurora Police Department, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations or HSI to discuss the gang problem at the three properties owned by CBZ Management.
'In that meeting, it was disclosed that our situation is not an isolated event, but numerous other multi-family projects in the City of Aurora and throughout the State of Colorado are subject to the same gang control,' disclosed CBZ management's attorney.
A special regional task force between Aurora cops, Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Bureau of Investigation was created on August 19 to take the cartel down.
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
TdA has been caught replicating its Aurora criminal model San Antonio, Texas.
Law enforcement sources confirmed TdA had been operating at the Palatia Apartments for five to six months, squatting in empty units they either rented out to other migrants, used as a base to deal cocaine or, most horrifically, as prostitution dens to pimp out women and children.
However, DailyMail.com can reveal that this apartment invasion is just the tip of the iceberg, with at least three additional rental properties also occupied by the criminal organization.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
The gang's exploits in the Big Apple have garnered much media attention, with two TdA mobsters charged over beating New York City police officers earlier this year.
The gang has been found to have taken part in cell phone thefts on mopeds, participated in thefts at stores, and have sold a pink, powdery drug known as Tusi, according to the New York Times.
As of September, the police had officially identified 24 Tren de Aragua members in the five boroughs, with the department explaining individuals had to self-identify as being part of the criminal network in order to be counted.
'Do we think that there's only 24 TDA members in New York City? That would be silly,' Chief Joseph Kenny told the publication. 'Obviously there are more.'
Just days ago, NYPD warned of the gang's growing power in Gotham.
'Right now what we have, I like to call a "perfect storm" of sorts. We have individuals, tremendously brazen, absolutely ruthless individuals that have committed a multitude of crimes with basically no repercussions,' NYPD Assistant Chief Jason Savino of the detective bureau told Fox 5.
'What started out as a robbery crew...20 individuals arrested for upwards of 50 robberies. Out of those 20 individuals, every single one of them is on the streets today.'
Savino went on to explain how the notoriously clever and adaptable crime ring is recruiting kids to do their dirty work because minors face little or no legal consequences if caught.
TdA is operating mostly in Times Square with a splinter group called 'Los Diablos de la 42' (or the devils of 42nd Street in Spanish) setting up shop on 42nd Street.
SAMFORD, CONNECTICUT
A motel murder has been pinned on TdA in a wealthy enclave of Connecticut that's considered a New York City suburb.
Gregory Marlyn Galindez-Trias, 24, and Moises Alejandro Condollo-Urbaneja, 22, have been accused of shooting Angel Samaniego, 59, at a Super 8 Hotel before fleeing the state, reported Fox News.
Investigators arrested them at a train station in New York State where they were traveling with their two children aged three and one.
ATHENS, GEORGIA
The man accused of killing a Georgia nursing college student has also been linked to the criminal enterprise TdA.
Jose Ibarra, 26, is charged in the death of the Laken Riley, 22, who was beaten to death while out running on the University of Georgia campus in February.
It is unclear if TdA is active in other parts of the Peach State but officials are concerned.
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WISCONSIN
Unexpectedly, TdA has also popped up in the northern state of Wisconsin, where police said they are 'confident' a gang member beat and sexually assaulted a woman in September.
Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26 of Venezuela, found his way to the small town of Prairie du Chien, about two hours outside of Madison, Wisconsin, when he went to spend time with the woman he later assaulted.
'Based on our investigation, we can confirm that Mr. Coronel Zarate entered the United States in September of 2023 at or near the El Paso, TX point of entry,' the cops said.
'Since that time, he has been arrested in Minneapolis, MN on November 17, 2023, for receiving stolen property. He was charged with Strangulation/Suffocation, False Imprisonment, Battery, and Disorderly Conduct in Dane County, WI on December 1, 2023.'
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Venezuela's most infamous export has been operating in Chicago since October 2023, according to NewsNation.
Described as a 'new threat developing amongst the newly arriving immigrant community,' the professional criminals have followed the thousands of law-abiding Venezuelans who have made the Windy City their final destination.
TdA is known to hide among its own law-abiding, asylum-seeking countrymen - not just to blend in, but to also exploit their own people.
MIAMI, FLORIDA
In South Florida, two Venezuelan migrants who police believe have TdA allegiance are accused of killing a former Venezuelan police officer in a Miami surbub.
Authorities claimed Yurwin Salazar and Julio César Hernández Montero lured victim Jose Luis Sanchez-Valera, 43, to a hotel where he met with a woman last November.
Surveillance video showed Sanchez-Valera left the hotel. But then three men were seen following him in another car before forcing him from the driver's seat and into the back seat of his SUV.
The next day, Sanchez-Valera's blood-splattered SUV was found on the side of the road.
OTHER TEXAS CITIES
In Dallas, a violent home invasion has been linked to TdA where a woman was pistol-whipped and threatened with having her fingers cut off if she didn't show armed goons where her valuables were stashed.
Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, 28, is one of four men police in Texas believe took part in the September 21 home invasion.
He illegally entered the country near El Paso in March without being inspected, admitted, or paroled by an immigration officer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told DailyMail.com.
In Houston, state police announced the arrest of confirmed gangster Jorgenys Robertson Cava, 32, earlier this year.
Local cops have also been working to establish whether the brutal murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray is tied to the group.
Houston also has a large Venezuelan population concentrated in the Katy suburb, which has earned it the nickname 'Katyzuela.'
In the Lone Star State, there is legal threshold for anyone to be classified as a gang member by the cops, with police around the state stating that simply having tattoos associated with a group is not enough.
Texas has offered $5,000 to anyone with information on gang members.
Reports can be made anonymously by calling Texas Crime Stoppers at 800-252-TIPS or on the Texas Department of Public Safety website, according to the department's social media accounts. |
[NYPOST] Two Florida men were arrested for human trafficking after allegedly soliciting minors for sexual activity on social media, according to officials.
...Formerly one of the world's premier criminal investigation organizations, something for a nation to be proud of. Now it's a political arm of the Deep State oligarchy that is willing to trump up charges, suppress evidence, or take out insurance policies come election time...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
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