Tren De Aragua gang members arrested in massive robbery on San

The pre-dawn raid was a joint operation conducted by more than 150 officers from the San Antonio Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, ATF and the Texas Anti Gang Unit. Officers searched about 300 vacant units at the Palatia Apartments, a complex on the city’s north side, about a mile west of the airport and just east of the Harmony Hills residential area.

“We had information that members of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua were in control of the area and committing various crimes,” San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus told reporters during a news conference in a nearby parking lot across the street from Casa Sol, a popular Tex-Mex restaurant frequented by families and business diners alike. human trafficking, drug law violations and threats against apartment workers.

“We have confirmed that four members of Tren de Aragua are in custody. One TDA member is a confirmed enforcer for that gang,” McManus said, using a term that describes someone responsible for ensuring subordinates adhere to the gang’s rules and orders. Of those arrested, 16 were Venezuelans.

A News4SA A reporter on the scene described hearing flash grenades being deployed as the attack was launched around 4:45 a.m., noting…

“There are 900 apartments in this complex. Federal law enforcement sources have told us that most of the apartments house migrants. We are also told that janitors and those who work here fear for their safety, and that of other migrants unrelated to the Venezuelan prison gang.”

On September 16 Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization and ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to launch a statewide operation to target the gang. ‘We will not allow them to use Texas as a base to terrorize our citizens’ Abbott told reporters. “They have a target on their back, and we’re going after them. Texas is the wrong state for them to do business in.”

The characterization of the gang that has claimed “control” of the San Antonio complex echoes infamous video footage that emerged from an Aurora Colorado apartment complex in August. Those videos showed gang members with rifles and handguns roaming The Edge in the Lowry complex. Just as the San Antonio criminals allegedly threatened employees at the complex, police say gang members in Aurora have threatened to kill property managers at a second complex, Whispering Pines.