U.S. authorities arrested dozens of members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua during recent operations in two major American cities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 16 suspected gang members were nabbed Tuesday in Aurora, Colorado, after the criminals were linked to a home invasion and kidnapping at an apartment building that Tren de Aragua had taken over.
That came less than two weeks after federal agents handcuffed 22 suspected gangsters in New York City during raids in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
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The police chief said the victims were bound, pistol-whipped and terrorized by the armed gangsters who took the victims out of one unit at the Edge of Lowry apartments and hauled them off to another one.
Chief Chamberlain said the victims were also Venezuelan immigrants, and the man was stabbed during the violent abduction.
“Individuals involved in this type of activity, they victimize their own race and their own ethnicity, and the reason they do that is because they know, because of their status, they will not come forward to police.” Chief Chamberlain said at a press conference last week.
Tren de Aragua’s caught-on-camera takeover of the Edge of Lowry this summer thrusted the gang into the national consciousness and emphasized how poorly the U.S. southern border was being managed by the Biden administration.
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Local leaders shot back at Mr. Trump and denied his claim that the Edge of Lowry had ceded control to the violent transnational gang.
City officials and the company that runs the apartment building agreed this month to close down the beleaguered complex.
In New York City, federal agents arrested several Tren de Aragua members on Dec. 5 after following one ankle-monitor-wearing suspect to his apartment hideout, according to the New York Post.
Police said seven suspected gang members were taken into custody during the Bronx raid.
Many of those arrested in the New York City operations had multiple arrests, largely for shoplifting and other theft-related offenses.
Suspect Jhonaiker Alexander Gil Cardozo, 24, had been arrested four times, according to the Post.
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Mr. Cardozo crossed into the U.S. illegally in 2022 near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Some of the gang members had active deportation orders as well, yet were able to evade authorities after not being kept behind bars.
* Original Article:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/dec/22/tren-de-aragua-gang-members-arrested-colorado-new-/?utm_source=smartnews.com&utm_medium=smartnews&utm_campaign=smartnews%20
