By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-11 20:27:14 | Updated at 2024-12-22 12:13:57
1 week ago
Another dangerous member of the Venezuelan gang that has infiltrated at least 17 states in the US has been caught.
A known Tren de Aragua member has been arrested in Miami, the US Border Patrol announced Wednesday morning.
'On 12/6, USBP agents in Miami, FL, arrested a Tren de Aragua gang member, a Venezuelan national with an arrest in 2022 for illegal entry,' agency chief Jason Owens tweeted.
'This notorious gang is the same one terrorizing cities across America, exploiting vulnerabilities and threatening communities. Stay vigilant!'
The Border Patrol did not release the man's identity or information on the circumstances of Sunday's apprehension.
He is the latest member of the gang to be arrested in there US.
Suspected TdA member Henry Theis, 25, was arrested in North Dakota in November. His arrest was made public this week.
Tren de Aragua gangsters were first spotted in an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, earlier this year
The South American prison gang turned international trafficking organization has spread across the US since first entering the US two years ago.
For two years, Tren de Aragua has been operating near the US-Mexico border, allying itself with Mexican drug cartels to established a criminal foothold in the US, Mexican law enforcement revealed.
Dubbed the 'epitome of evil', Tren de Aragua is best known as the Venezuelan prison gang that transformed itself into a international crime group through ruthless child prostitution and sex trafficking rings in South America, with its members crossing over into the US in recent years amid a wave of Venezuelan migrants.
The tattooed mobsters have since unleashed a wave of crime across the country from Miami and Texas to Denver and New York.
The Miami arrest comes as another TdA thug was has been taken into custody in one of the most unlikely places in America.
Authorities in West Fargo, North Dakota arrested suspected gang member Henry Theis, 25, according to Valley News Live.
Theis has been charged with felony theft last month with $24,800 in cash in a car.
Police pulled him over because the car he was driving matched the description of car that had been involved in an ATM theft that same day.
During the traffic stop, Theis admitted to working with three other hackers.
They had a special code, that when punched into an ATM, dispensed cash.
He also volunteered that other Venezuelan criminals were doing the same thing in North Dakota and going by the nickname, 'the magicians.'
Suspected TdA member Henry Theis, 25, was arrested in North Dakota in November. His arrest was made public this week
The car Theis was driving had temporary paper tags from Texas, and told the cops that he was a Venezuelan living in Dallas.
'Tren de Aragua now has a presence in 17 states,' Texas Congressman Troy E. Nehls (R) tweeted Tuesday after the North Dakota arrest.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency in charge of removing migrants from the country, revealed it has 200 on-going investigations into TdA across the country.
Now, the department has formed a special task force, 'Operations Athens' in honor Laken Riley, the Georgia woman killed by a TdA member.
'What we're doing is adding a lot of resources to the effort,' ICE acting director Patrick Lechleitner told Fox News.
As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, TdA moved its new headquarters to the US-Mexico border in Juarez, Mexico, where it is kidnapping asylum-seeking migrants who are attempting to enter America.
