San Antonio police chief against criminal Venezuelan gangs: ‘We are coming after you’

Law enforcement agencies in Texas are aggressively arresting men in the country illegally who are confirmed members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TDA).

Recent arrests occurred in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston.

San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus announced the results of a multi-agency task force operation launched after the SAPD received complaints “of multiple narcotics violations, human trafficking and threats to apartment staff” at an apartment complex in the northern part of the city.

The task force had information that TDA members were “in control of the area and committed several crimes” in the complex, he said. SAPD officers and DPS troops cleared nearly 300 vacant apartments there Saturday and processed more than 20 people they arrested. Four are confirmed TDA members; one is a confirmed enforcer for the gang, he said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and removal officials took all four into custody.

Of the 20 people arrested, 19 have ICE charges against them, he said. Several detainees have confirmed arrest warrants; several people already had deportation orders, he said.

“We want to assure the community and the public that we are committed to their safety,” he said. “We are on top of this TDA issue” and Saturday’s operation “is just one example of that commitment.” The apartment complex they targeted was “just the first. We have other places we are going to attack,” he said.

The operation is ongoing, had been in the works for weeks and the gang had been active in the city for several months, he said.

He also warned the TDA gang members, saying: “We are on to you and we are coming after you. We know where you are and we’re coming for you.’

Further north, four Venezuelan TDA gang members were recently arrested for an aggravated robbery of a woman at her home near the Dallas Fort Worth Airport after an hours-long standoff with police, Fox 4 News reported. The robbery survivor was pistol-whipped, tied up and threatened with having her fingers cut off, WFAA News reported.

All four arrested Venezuelan men are in the country illegally and are ICE detainees. One was previously arrested by Colleyville police and released a day before the robbery. Two others are not in custody.

In Houston, a Texas DPS special agent assigned to the Texas Anti-Gang Center arrested a TDA member, also in the US. He was scheduled for an asylum hearing on Oct. 7, Texas DPS announced.

He “was wanted out of Pearland, Texas for theft,” DPS said. “Over the course of the investigation, investigators observed tattoos on Cova’s arms, including a five-point crown, a clock and roses – all known TDA markings.”

The arrests came after Texas DPS officers arrested TDA members in El Paso and a judge ordered a hotel there closed following numerous reports of alleged criminal activity.

The efforts come after Governor Greg Abbott declared the TDA a foreign terrorist organization and dedicated law enforcement resources to pursue them. The designation allows the state to “bring the full weight of government against the TDA,” he said. It allows “Texas courts to shut down their operations by using civil asset forfeiture, seizing their property and using harsher criminal penalties to keep them behind bars for longer periods of time.”

Abbott ordered law enforcement to aggressively pursue TDA gang members. He claims they are terrorizing Texans after they entered the US illegally, were not vetted and were released from the country due to the Biden-Harris administration’s “open border policy.”

Texas DPS is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of TDA gang members.

“Tren de Aragua has spread terror and carnage in every country they have been to, and Texas will not allow them to gain a foothold in our state,” Abbott said. He announced the reward “for any information leading to the identification and arrest of known or suspected members of this gang involved in heinous crimes.” Texas will not allow these criminals to use our state as a base to terrorize our citizens.”

TDA gang members are known for brutal violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking, Abbott said, and are involved in more than 100 law enforcement investigations across the country.