Despite denials from public officials in El Paso, Texas that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is not operating there, at least four mobsters have been charged with crimes, and three of those migrants have been released from jail, DailyMail.com can reveal.
At least four men associated with the South American syndicate are currently facing criminal charges in El Paso in crime that are only being made public now thanks to police reports obtained through a public records request by DailyMail.com.
TdA, as the group is known to law enforcement, has crept into the US in recent years, hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration are a 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 inaccurate, very inaccurate statement. There’s been one known TdA member,’ Mayor Oscar Leeser said during a September 19 press conference.
‘There’s only been one and the federal government got involved, and they’re no longer in the US.’
However, the police documents obtained by DailyMail.com and multiple arrests by several law enforcement agencies show there are far more than just one TdA member operating in El Paso.
One TdA thug was identified as a gang member to the police by his victim.
Nestor Jose Ochoa Suescun beat his girlfriend, also a Venezuelan migrant, threatening ‘that the only way she was going to leave was dead’ while slamming her against doors, the floor and holding a gun to her head.
When the woman went to the cops on Sept. 10, she told investigators she’s afraid of him ‘as he is a violent gang member from Venezuelan (Tren de Aragua) and has no one else in the United States to rely on,’ the charging document states.
Ochoa bonded out of jail on Sept. 22 after being given a cash or surety bond for two aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges, according to court records.
A woman who was savagely beaten told investigators with the El Paso Police Dept. that her boyfriend was a member of the ultra violent gang Tren de Aragua
Tren de Aragua gang tattoos (pictured above) were part of a Department of Homeland Security bulletin that was recently shared with federal agents
In a separate case, two other men who were caught driving stolen cars are also now free.
Police went to a Super 8 Motel in February looking for a truck stolen in Houston that had been tracked across the state to El Paso.
When police arrived, they found Ubaldo Montes Alonso and Yuniel Hernandez Alonso attempting to get into the truck taken from Texas Auto North dealership in Houston.
Investigators discovered Hernandez Alonso had car keys on him from a different stolen pick-up from Austin. He also had taken a gun that had been left inside by the truck’s owner.
Both Venezuelans posted bond days after their Feb. 19 arrest.
A fourth migrant, Miguel Eduardo Teran-Moral, is charged with murder after he shot and killed another migrant on July 7.
The victim, Ivan Dario Bello Espitia, lived on a property in Central El Paso housing several Colombian and Venezuelan migrants.
Espitia was executed by Teran-Moral after he had already been shot once another unnamed man.
Venezuela’s most violent gang Tren de Aragua has moved its headquarters to just across the US border in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez
Records from the El Paso Police Department document a murder associated with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com
Teran-Moral pulled the trigger twice as Espitia laid on the ground.
Witnesses told police the execution was payback after Teran-Moral believed Espitia had assaulted his friend.
Teran-Moral is charged with murder since Espitia did not survive his injuries. He remains behind bars.
Presented with evidence of more than just one TdA member in El Paso, the Democrat mayor defended his earlier statement.
‘Based on the information from local law enforcement to the Mayor, his statement was accurate – at the time, there was only one confirmed member in El Paso,’ Leeser’s spokeswoman told DailyMail.com via email.
Texas’ largest city to straddle the US-Mexico border has been called the epicenter for TdA activity by state law enforcement officials.
As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, El Paso’s Mexican sister city, Juarez, is the gang’s new headquarters.
From its 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 the center of gravity. El Paso…is really ground zero,’ DPS Director Steve McCraw revealed at a September 16 news conference during which Lone Star State officials declared war on the South American syndicate.
‘Because (TdA) continues to support the Juarez-related gangs involved in the smuggling of people across the border, and they combat with us. We deal with them daily in that regard,’ he added.
Texas’ sixth largest city, the busiest border crossing for most of 2022 and 2023, has also been used as the entry point for many TdA members.
Estefania Primera, 37, was arrested by police in El Paso, Texas last week
Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso arrest a Tren de Aragua gang member Oct. 11 in Sunland Park, New Mexico – just outside El Paso.
A group of about 600 migrants rushed the US border in March in El Paso, Texas
In March, a rare riot on the border was orchestrated by TdA, in which a migrant mob overwhelmed Texas National Guard members, kicking and overpowering armed soldiers at a border crossing in El Paso, the governor of Texas said.
It is unclear how many TdA members have been stopped in West Texas specifically, but the US 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 entry point and leave, others have stayed and even helped take control of the Gateway Hotel – a low budget place many of its guests use as a place to live.
