Despite denials from government officials in El Paso, Texas that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is not active there, at least four gangsters have been charged with crimes and three of these migrants have been released from prison, DailyMail.com can reveal.
At least four men linked to the South American syndicate are currently facing criminal charges in El Paso for crimes that are only now becoming public thanks to police reports obtained through a DailyMail.com public records request.
TdA, as the group is known to law enforcement, has crept into the U.S. in recent years, hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who entered the country during the Biden administration and are responsible for a wave of crime across the country.
However, the mayor downplayed the gang’s threat to El Paso after state police called Texas’ sixth-largest city “ground zero” for TdA in the Lone Star State.
“There’s been a lot of talk about TdA… that El Paso is ground zero, which is an inaccurate, very inaccurate statement. There is one known TdA member,” Mayor Oscar Leeser said during a meeting Press conference of September 19.
“There was only one, and the federal government got involved, and they’re no longer in the U.S.”
However, police documents obtained by DailyMail.com and multiple arrests by various law enforcement agencies reveal that there is much more than just one TdA member operating in El Paso.
One TdA criminal was identified by his victim to the police as a gang member.
Nestor Jose Ochoa Suescun beat his girlfriend, also a Venezuelan migrant, and threatened “that the only way she would leave was to die,” as he punched her against doors and the floor and held a gun to her head.
When the woman went to police on September 10, she told investigators that she was afraid of him “because he is a violent gang member from Venezuela (Tren de Aragua) and has no one else in the United States to rely on.” the indictment said. document state.
Ochoa was released on Sept. 22 after receiving a cash or surety bond for two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.
A woman who was brutally beaten told El Paso police investigators that her boyfriend was a member of the ultra-violent Tren de Aragua gang
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (photo above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin recently shared with federal agents
In a separate case, two other men caught driving stolen cars are also now free.
Police went to a Super 8 Motel in February looking for a truck stolen in Houston and tracked across the state to El Paso.
When police arrived, they found Ubaldo Montes Alonso and Yuniel Hernandez Alonso trying to get into the truck taken from the Texas Auto North dealership in Houston.
Investigators discovered that Hernandez Alonso was carrying car keys to another stolen pickup from Austin. He also took a gun that had been left inside by the truck’s owner.
Both Venezuelans posted bond a day after their arrest on February 19.
A fourth migrant, Miguel Eduardo Teran-Moral, is charged with murder after shooting dead another migrant on July 7.
The victim, Ivan Dario Bello Espitia, lived on a property in Central El Paso that was home to several Colombian and Venezuelan migrants.
Espitia was executed by Teran-Moral after already being shot once by another unnamed man.
Venezuela’s most violent gang, Tren de Aragua, has moved its headquarters to just across the US border in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez.
El Paso Police Department records document a murder linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com
Teran-Moral pulled the trigger twice while Espitia was on the ground.
Witnesses told police the execution was retaliation after Teran-Moral believed Espitia had attacked his friend.
Teran-Moral is charged with murder because Espitia did not survive his injuries. He remains behind bars.
Presented with evidence from more than just one TdA member in El Paso, the Democratic mayor defended his earlier statement.
“Based on information provided to the mayor by local law enforcement, his statement was accurate – at that time there was only one confirmed member in El Paso,” Leeser’s spokeswoman told DailyMail.com via email.
Texas’ largest city, located on the U.S.-Mexico border, has been called the epicenter for TdA activity by state law enforcement officials.
As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, Juarez, El Paso’s Mexican sister city, is the gang’s new headquarters.
From the base on America’s doorstep, gang members move back and forth between the US and Mexico, federal sources tell DailyMail.com.
“That’s why El Paso is kind of a center of gravity. El Paso…is truly ground zero,” DPS Director Steve McCraw revealed during a meeting Press conference of September 16 in which Lone Star State officials declared war on the South American Syndicate.
“Because (TdA) continues to support the Juarez-related gangs involved in smuggling people across the border, and they are fighting with us. In that regard, we deal with them on a daily basis,” he added.
Texas’ sixth-largest city, the busiest border crossing for most of 2022 and 2023, has also been used as an entry point for many TdA members.
Estefania Primera, 37, was arrested by police last week in El Paso, Texas
Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso arrest a Tren de Aragua gang member on October 11 in Sunland Park, New Mexico, just outside El Paso.
A group of about 600 migrants fled across the U.S. border in El Paso, Texas, in March
In March, a rare riot at the border was orchestrated by TdA, in which a migrant gang overwhelmed members of the Texas National Guard and kicked and overpowered armed soldiers at a border crossing in El Paso, the Texas governor said.
It is unclear how many TdA members have been stopped specifically in West Texas, but U.S. Border Patrol has prevented 64 confirmed gangsters from entering the country since March 2023.
However, other federal agencies continue to take TdA members off the streets, such as the October 11 arrest of a Venezuelan man wanted for murder by Homeland Security Investigations.
While many migrants, including TdA, simply use El Paso as an entry point and leave, others have stayed and even helped take control of the Gateway Hotel – a cheap place that many of its guests use as a place to live.